awards – CGW's Blog

Technical.ly accepts Online Journalism Award for technology reporting excellence

This was originally a Linkedin post, shared here for archiving purposes. (I previously shared about the win here)

Well, at last night’s splashy Online News Association in New York, they may have given more stage time to producers of The Daily Show, leadership at La Nacion in Venezuela and the Reuters team who fearlessly covered the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. That included enthusiastic hosting by Vitus Spehar of Under the Desk News.

Still, let it be known that last night, Danya Henninger and I were plenty proud that Technical.ly was honored in such company for excellence in technology reporting. It was a genuine honor to stand next to the impressive WIRED team, including Vittoria Elliott and Andy Greenberg. Congratulations also to Nilay Patel and The Verge team, which was up for several honors (I meant to say a proper thank you for the inspiring work for us locally.)

Technical.ly is one of just 11 “sustaining” local news orgs in the country

Technical.ly received special recognition during the 2026 LION Sustainability Awards as one of 11 Sustaining news organizations in LION’s updated maturity model for independent news publishers. The announcement was made in San Diego at the annual conference of the well-regarded national association of local publishers.

That’s 11 out of close to 500 audited, or 2.5 percent. I wrote more here.

This really shows how rare, and how hard, sustainability is in local news in our post-newspaper digital era.

Technical.ly awarded national Online News Association award for tech reporting

Incredible honor: I am overcome with pride for the Technical.ly’s newsroom big win at the Online News Association’s annual awards, first announced last night.

Alongside Wired and Reuters, Technical.ly was honored for Excellence in Technology Reporting. The only local newsroom to get this distinction.

This particular award is for our deep, insightful and balanced data center coverage, led by Danya Henninger, Katie Malone, Alice Crow and Sarah Huffman, and the kind of work we’re now doing in 10 U.S. states and growing. It took 18 years and many hands to get to this level.

ESHIP “Builder of the Day”

The tribe I feel closest to are the ecosystem builders: those who work their tails off to bring entrepreneurship to the center of local strategy.

One of the chief conveners is ESHIP Alliance, which is growing an online community of just such ecosystem builders. Smartly, and generously, there they’re highlighting longtime and active ecosystem builders. I’m proud they kindly highlighted my Technical.ly work today.

This is a clever strategy 🙂 Thanks to ESHIP leader-organizers and champions

THRIVING named top podcast by PA News Media Association

It’s another much appreciated honor for the two-year reporting, community engagement and qualitative research project. I was especially proud that we got the nod in the “large” newsroom category, meaning the most stiff competition. Find THRIVING here.

Technical.ly is honored for its “journalistic impact”

I’m proud to share Technical.ly was awarded the “Journalistic Impact” award (in the large tier no less!) last night in Chicago by the well-regarded LION: Local Independent Online News Publishers!

The leading driver was our big THRIVING reporting project on economic mobility, and I’m so proud that our other multi-local reporting was honored too. Best I can remember, this is our first proper journalism award, and it’s a big one — even though our communities have often kindly honored our work!

Coded by Kids named me a ‘Champion for Change’

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Coded by Kids, leaders of the youth engagement nonprofit honored others. I was flattered to be among them.

I remember hearing about Sylvester Mobley spending time at a South Philly rec center to offer basic computer and coding classes to young kids there. Soon after Technical.ly profiled his work, and I later joined their first board of directors, where I also met his wife and partner Danae Mobley. I’ve worked closely with both, especially Danae of late in her role leading 1Philadelphia.

Since I’ve known them both for so long, and challenged and collaborated them too, it meant a lot for Danae to say nice words and call me a “champion for change” at an event last night filled with other stakeholders and partners. Thanks friends.

I was honored with the 2024 IBIT “Innovators Award”

I proudly accepted Wednesday the “Innovators Award” from the Temple University Fox School of Business’s Institute for Business and Information Technology. The award is “given annually to a person or persons for innovation in applying IT to create business opportunity.”

The award was timed with the launch of the 14th annual Philly Tech Week, which I founded, and the 15th anniversary of Technical.ly, a local news org that has adapted in this strange economic period for community journalism. The transfer of Generocity.org last year was also a relevant example of my work.I was proud that my references for the award were my friends journalist-turned-college-dean David Boardman and entrepreneur Bob Moore. I formerly emceed these very awards, which are led by the thoughtful and analytical Munir Y. Mandviwalla and Laurel Miller. Knowing what they put into these awards made it all the more special. I was certainly in good company: My fellow award-winner was Jeff Hamilton, who was the CIO of Pfizer while the company rolled out its covid-19 vaccine.

Below, I share my remarks from the award event.

Named an ‘Advocate for Equity’

Though I was confident I wasn’t going to win, this really was one of those times where I felt honored to be nominated.

I was listed among five collaborators and genuine friends as a nominee to be called a top “Advocate for Equity” by 1Philadelphia, a new initiative focused on inclusive innovation in the region. My bud Michael O’Bryan, who runs a consultancy and is a popular champion of equity efforts, took the honor at an event Saturday. It was part of what the group calls its Innovation Weekend.

Technical.ly was honored with a DCRAC community service award

On Oct. 12, Technical.ly was awarded the James S. Angus Excellence in Community Service award from Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council (DCRAC).