This week, the City and Regional Magazine Association announced the nominees for its annual awards honoring the best in magazine writing and design. Milwaukee Magazine was nominated for six of the prestigious awards, including General Excellence for the second year in a row.
Over 100 judges – including representatives from The Atlantic, The New Yorker and National Geographic – chose this year’s finalists, which include 30 publications from across the country. Winners will be announced at CRMA’s 49th Annual Conference in June. Last year, Milwaukee Magazine won the CRMA General Excellence award for its “powerful covers, fresh typefaces, section openers … [and] an editorial well full of surprises.”
Here are Milwaukee Magazine‘s six 2025 CRMA nominees, along with links to read the nominated stories:
General Excellence
Food or Dining Section: “The Dish” Edited by Ann Christenson
Profile: “The Cleaner” by Archer Parquette
The head of MMSD has fans across the globe for his innovative work purifying and protecting Cream City’s water, but Kevin Shafers’s biggest achievement might be scrubbing away years of bitter division surrounding the sewerage district.
Feature Story: “These Days Are Yours and Mine” by Archer Parquette
“Happy Days” has been a Milwaukee cultural touchstone for 50 years now. On its anniversary, we look back to see what – if anything – it really had to say about our city.
Leisure/Lifestyle/Interests: “High Dive” Edited by Chris Drosner, Design by Chelsea Mamerow
Greater Milwaukee has hundreds of friendly, unaffected taverns serving up cheap beers, rail drinks and a special kind of fellowship. C’mon in and order up a cold one. (Additional writing from Tom Kertscher, Tea Krulos and Spencer Creal. Photos by Aliza Baran.)
Special Issue: “The Issue of Politics” (July Issue)
Milwaukee’s big moment is finally here. For six years, we’ve been waiting to be the center of the world’s political attention, so we’re ready to put planks in the platform, to protest, to cash those checks, to put our best face on Cream City, and to do what we do best – throw a party. Milwaukee, let’s do the RNC.
