The fine arts community in Milwaukee, and in Wisconsin as a whole, is vibrant and alive. A recent development in the digital media business that covers it proves that point.

Urban Milwaukee announced earlier today that it has purchased Third Coast Daily, an online arts and entertainment publication. The sale will be effective Dec. 1, according to the release.

"This has been coming together over the past two months," said Urban Milwaukee president Jeramey Jannene. "We will continue to operate the sites as different properties to target different audiences."

Just this past year, John Shannon, the owner and publisher of Third Coast Daily took the reins of the digital publication that grew out of the Vital Source magazine.

"I got involved with Third Coast because I am a supporter of the arts and I felt its coverage of Milwaukee’s cultural scene helped make this a more vibrant city," he said in the release "But I cannot continue to commit the time needed to oversee the publication. I believe Urban Milwaukee has the resources and know-how to maintain and increase the readership of Third Coast."

Jannene said that TCD is a good compliment to the coverage offered at Urban Milwaukee.

"We are extremely excited with the opportunity," he said, explaining that the team will continue the core coverage, and expand the audience by building on the entertainment coverage.

Jannene said that Urban Milwaukee will be able to better facilitate, in essence the day-to-day workings at TCD.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We’d like to salute John Shannon for his work to keep TCD going, as well that of its past editors like Tom Strini, Jon Anne Willow and Matthew Reddin. We aim to build on that legacy. Third Coast will continue as its own site, but under our direction," he said.

"We will be working on a new design that will be fully responsive to work better in a mobile market."

Urban Milwaukee’s editor Bruce Murphy will now serve as the editor of Third Coast, as well.

"This is a great opportunity. Milwaukee has a rich arts and entertainment scene, with far more to offer than many cities of its size, and we plan to continue the growth of TCD as a publication worthy of the city it covers," Murphy said.

Jannene told me that he and co-founder Dave Reid haven’t veered from their mission when they launched Urban Milwaukee in 2008.

"With our original vision, we never strayed off it. But we never expected that we would get here this quickly," he said.

"There’s a big opportunity in arts and entertainment in Milwaukee. For the fine arts we feel that voice has been too quiet for too long."

I believe that in our backyard that there is plenty of room for good coverage of what happens in our city. With as many good things that are going on, there are many great stories out there that need to be told. I’m looking forward to more stories.