An
OnMilwaukee co-founder has left the digital lifestyle magazine and website after more than 20 years with the Milwaukee-based media company.
Jeff Sherman, who co-founded OnMilwaukee with Andy Tarnoff and Jon Krouse in 1998, sold his ownership stake in the business and has exited the media company entirely, Sherman told BizTimes.
Tarnoff, the magazine’s managing member and largest shareholder, said Sherman’s minority share of the company was sold to a local investor “who brings new expertise and additional investment to the organization, which will help us grow horizontally and vertically.”
“I have a deep sense of pride and gratefulness for the opportunities I’ve had to work with countless people and organizations that help move Milwaukee and media forward,” Sherman said of his time at OnMilwaukee. “Civic leadership never stops.”
Sherman was also OnMilwaukee’s president and was most involved with community outreach and the sales management part of the business, Tarnoff said. However, as the company moves forward without Sherman, readers and clients won’t see much of a difference in the media company’s products, Tarnoff added.
“His outreach with the community has been great, but we have some new plans for increasing our level of involvement in Milwaukee, too,” Tarnoff said. "We have an amazing staff that is passionate about delivering a great product and serving our clients and our community.”
Over the last decade, OnMilwaukee’s digital magazine has become part of the business’s larger media company, which includes social media, native content and integration with the businesses’ programmatic digital agency,
LIFT Digital.
“We’ve come a long way since 1998,” Tarnoff said. “OnMilwaukee and LIFT Digital wouldn’t be as successful or as profitable as we are today without Jeff’s contributions over these many years. He and I started the business before there was Facebook or Google – there was certainly nothing like OnMilwaukee at the time. In many ways, there still isn’t, locally or nationally.”
Although Sherman did not specify where his career is headed next, he alluded to several projects he is working on, including a “big civic project,” a new political and sports company that he’s a part of and a collaborative project with his wife.
“The future is bright,” Sherman said. “Milwaukee’s future is bright too. Personally, I’m excited for what’s next.”
