The Milwaukee Press Club has named Oshkosh native Jim VandeHei, co-founder and CEO of Axios, as the club’s 2025 Sacred Cat Award honoree. The award, given annually since 1973, recognizes excellence in journalism at the national level.
VandeHei will accept the award at the club’s annual Gridiron Awards event, set for Friday, May 9 at The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee.
The club also will honor its 2025 Headliners, Mark Murphy, retiring Green Bay Packers president and CEO; and Sherrie Tussler, CEO Emeritus of the Hunger Task Force.
Winners of the press club’s 2024 Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism competition will also be announced at the Gridiron.
“We had another strong contest year in terms of the number of entries,” said Maryann Lazarski, club president. “We look forward to honoring the outstanding work of Wisconsin journalists.”
“I’m looking forward to hearing what our Sacred Cat honoree has to say about the state of journalism and the continuing role of news websites like Axios.”
Past Sacred Cat honorees include James Bennet, Manu Raju, Cokie Roberts, Gloria Borger, Frank Deford, Marty Baron, Ann Compton and Walter Cronkite.
VandeHei, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, has blended journalism and business in his career. He covered politics for the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post and later co-founded Politico, a digital media company covering public policy, politics and power in Washington. He supervised both the editorial and business operations.
In 2016, he, along with a couple of Politico alums, started the news website Axios. VandeHei said they launched the site with the belief that the world needed smarter, more efficient coverage of topics shaping the fast-changing world.
During the past few years, VandeHei also co-authored Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less and wrote Just the Good Stuff, his perspective on succeeding despite obstacles you encounter or a low self-image.
He still cherishes his Wisconsin roots and continues to be a proud fan of the Green Bay Packers.
Murphy will retire in July as the Green Bay Packers President and CEO, a position he’s held since 2007. He played in the NFL for eight years with the then Washington Redskins. It’s believed that Murphy is the only person to earn a Super Bowl ring as a player in 1982 and as a team’s chief executive in 2010. Murphy has been a strong advocate for community service and has played a key role in programs like Give BIG Green Bay which raised over $13.5 million for local nonprofits.
Tussler is being honored for her 27-year legacy with Milwaukee’s Hunger Task Force and her unwavering commitment to addressing food insecurity in our community and throughout Wisconsin. One of her most significant accomplishments is the establishment of the FoodShare Outreach program. She opened three self-service locations staffed by advocates fluent in 12 languages. She also started the Hunger Task Force Farm that produces half a million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables annually. Those are just two examples of her passion to help those in need.
Past Headliner honorees include former Wisconsin Governors Tommy Thompson and Martin Schreiber, Howard Fuller, Ted Kellner, Ricardo Diaz, Linda Mellowes, Michael Pink, Barry Alvarez, Jane Pettit, Bud Selig, James Lovell, Ben Marcus and Steve Marcus.
Registration for the Gridiron Awards event is available online at www.milwaukeepressclub.org. Early registration deadline is Friday, April 18. The cost is $95 per individual. Full-time students may register for $35 – the cost for their participation is being underwritten by the MPC Endowment Ltd.
Corporate table sponsorships are available for $1,200 — Sponsorship/advertising information can be found here.
Founded in 1885, the Milwaukee Press Club is the oldest continuously operating press club in North America. Its members represent a diverse community of media-focused professionals from nearly every local media outlet, a strong contingent of public relations and marketing professionals and others with an interest in journalism and news media.
• View past Sacred Cat Awards
• View past Headliner Awards
