When I found out the OnMilwaukee.com has been awarded as an finalist in the 2012 Eppy Awards, I was, as expected, delighted.

We've won our share of awards over the years, and in fact, this nomination from Editor & Publisher Magazine – the industry source for professional journalism – has named us finalists in both 2003 and 2008. Locally, we've won several Milwaukee Press Club awards, but the Eppy is a big one. In our industry, it's the top award for excellence in digital media.

We'll find out next week if we win.

But even if we don't, it's such an honor to be considered among the country's best web sites. Locally, I think Milwaukeeans appreciate how hard we work – and have worked since 1998 – to deliver the city's best daily online magazine. To get kudos from this prestigious panel of 68 judges is an extra bonus. Milwaukee tends to fly under the radar nationally, and we're excited to share our story on such a big stage.

Because it's times like this that I reflect on what a small business we really are, despite our ever-growing numbers.

Yes, an amazing 400,000 monthly unique visitors read and enjoy what we write every day. Yes, we're well into seven digits of annual, profitable revenue. But we're also a team of just 13 or so full-time employees. We build our own software, write our own stories, take our own photos and sell our own ads. We're an independent media company, doing great things, in an era of bigger and bigger media players.

It's just so nice to be recognized along big players like ESPN.com, CNN.com and more.

Many thanks, as always, to our our hard-working employees, our advertisers and our readers. We wouldn't be here without you.

We'll let you know if we win on Oct. 30.