PublicSource strives to make a positive impact on communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania and beyond, and we’re honored that our work is often recognized locally, regionally and nationally.
We appreciate the organizations that choose to celebrate journalism, and the people who dedicate time to reviewing countless submissions, offer feedback and choose from among many worthy reporting efforts.
Honors received in 2024 are noted here. The list below reflects recognition PublicSource received in 2025 and will be updated periodically.
Oct. 1, 2025
Public Source’s work was selected as one of the three best examples of impactful democracy-focused content in the country by the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, organizers of Democracy Day. Democracy Day is an annual nonpartisan collaborative project focusing on the role of journalism in protecting democratic values and institutions.
Winners actively participated in strengthening American democracy and democratic institutions by centering community voices, protecting voting rights, and making civic participation more accessible.
The center honored Quinn Glabicki’s work embedding with volunteers tracking ICE activity across our region, documenting community response and producing follow-up guides and explanatory reporting.
Sept. 12, 2025
Pittsburgh’s Public Source and reporter Quinn Glabicki were honored in the fifth annual Nonprofit News Awards (INNYs) for Best Investigative Journalism in the medium division. The award was received for the 2024 story “EQT’s Gas Play: There is something wrong under New Freeport.”
“This story has it all — the human impact, a smoking-gun video obtained from a records request, and a class-action lawsuit that cites this reporter’s coverage,” one judge wrote. “It was handled well, and it’s clear the effort that went into the story.”
Judges added that, the PublicSource stories are “a brilliant example of the power of local reporting.”
The INNY awards featured newsrooms that exposed corruption, inequality and injustice — and centered communities in their work. The awards ceremony was hosted by the Institute for Nonprofit News on Wed., Sept. 10 in New Orleans.
June 26, 2025
PublicSource journalists have been recognized with four 2025 Professional Keystone Media Awards from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
Quinn Glabicki and Natasha Vicens won first place in the special section category for Hollowed Out, a a story about how Pittsburgh-based EQT’s expansion in West Virginia set four families reeling.
Glabicki won second place in investigative reporting for EQT’s Gas Play, which included Hollowed Out in its exploration of one of America’s largest natural gas producers, based in Pittsburgh.
Glabicki also earned first place in sports feature photo for his image of a wrestler practicing a drop kick at T2T Wrestling Academy.
PublicSource freelance reporter Bill Zlatos won first place in personality profile for his story about Mark Steidl, a man with cerebral palsy who co-wrote and starred in a new opera.
The Professional Keystone Media Awards honor outstanding journalism across the state. We’re grateful to the judges — and to our readers — for supporting this work. See the full list of winners here.
June 5, 2025
PublicSource reporters Venuri Siriwardane, Jamie Wiggan and Maddy Franklin won Robert L. Vann Media Awards Wednesday as the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation continued more than a half-century of advocating “fair representation of the African American community in the news, working to increase the presence of journalists of color in newsrooms and other media organizations, and recognizing and promoting dignity, excellence and integrity in news coverage,” as the PBMF said in announcing winners.
Siriwardane and Wiggan won in the health reporting category for “A generation ‘constructed’ for tragedy: Older Black men hit hardest by overdose crisis.” The story was part of a multi-outlet project coordinated by The Baltimore Banner, the New York Times and Stanford University’s Big Local News.
Franklin won the feature category for “Slings and arrows set aside in Allegheny County Jail-based ‘Hamlet’ workshops.”
Vann, for whom the awards are named, was the nationally influential publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, now named the New Pittsburgh Courier, a PublicSource news partner.
May 29, 2025
Competing for the first time in the category including the largest newsrooms in the Pittsburgh region, PublicSource won nine Press Club of Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill awards, announced at a Wednesday night ceremony at the Rivers Casino.
Bringing home the best-in-show Ray Sprigle Memorial Award in Division 1 was “EQT’s Gas Play,” a series reported and photographed by Quinn Glabicki focusing on a Pittsburgh-based natural gas firm and the effects its fracking operations have on communities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The series also won the prize for excellence in the enterprise/investigative category.
Judges called the series “excellent, thorough journalism exposing harm, seeking accountability and shining a light on the all-too-often unquestioned claims of the gas and oil industry.”
“Hollowed out,” the first story in the series, was also a finalist for best digital presentation, engineered by Creative Director Natasha Vicens and Glabicki.
The Service to Journalism Award went to Maggie Patterson, a pillar of Pittsburgh reporting for more than four decades who recently retired from her longtime post as professor of journalism at Duquesne University. Patterson, who reported for the Pittsburgh Press, serves as a member of the PublicSource board.
PublicSource collaborations with WESA won three excellence awards:
- Education reporting for the series “PPS’ Path Forward” by PublicSource’s Lajja Mistry and WESA’s Jillian Forstadt
- Audio journalism for “PPS’ Path Forward”
- Public affairs/politics/government reporting for a story on efforts to cull Allegheny County voter rolls, by Charlie Wolfson of PublicSource and Julia Zenkevich of WESA.
Freelance reporter Bill Zlatos’ story “Mark can’t talk independently, but co-wrote — and stars in — a new opera,” won in both the traditional feature and profile categories, and was a finalist in the lifestyle category.
Zlatos also won in the lifestyle category for a story about self-advocacy by people with disabilities. The story was also a finalist in the traditional feature category.
Photographer Stephanie Strasburg was honored for best personality profile photo for her treatment of a woman who was blind at birth but given sight as an adult through surgery.
Other stories that were honored as finalists:
- In the medical and health category, Venuri Siriwardane for “Need Suboxone at the Allegheny County Jail? Get up at 3 a.m.”
- For collaborations, Wolfson, Zenkevich and WESA’s Chris Potter for the series “Spot Check”
- For audio investigations and enterprise, WESA’s Kate Giammarise and PublicSource’s Eric Jankiewicz for “Small housing authority files far more evictions than larger Pittsburgh-area agencies”
- In the science and environment area, Melanie Linn Gutowski’s story “Citizen scientists lead the charge in Western Pennsylvania’s spotted lanternfly fight”
- For arts and entertainment reporting, Gregory Laski for “August Wilson’s ‘Radio Golf’ explores race, class and gentrification on the Hill”
- In the history and culture category, David S. Rotenstein’s “Built for white people: The hidden racist history of some Pittsburgh neighborhoods.”
April 23, 2025
PublicSource reporter and photojournalist Quinn Glabicki has been named a finalist for the 2025 Livingston Awards, which support young journalists and honor the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under 35. Glabicki was recognized in the Local Reporting category for his powerful visual storytelling and investigative work on EQT’s Gas Play. The series has previously earned accolades, including first place in the Local News Picture Story category from Pictures of the Year International and the Victor K. McElheny Award from Knight Science Journalism at MIT.
The Livingston Awards, administered by the Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan, honor exceptional reporting in local, national and international categories. Each year, the awards recognize young journalists whose work demonstrates excellence, creativity and impact. This year’s winners will be announced on June 10, 2025, at a ceremony in New York City.
PublicSource extends congratulations to two staff alumni who are among this year’s Livingston Awards finalists: Juliette Rihl, now an investigative reporter with PennLive and The Patriot-News, and Amelia Winger, currently a data reporter at the Houston Chronicle.
April 21, 2025
Faces & Voices of Recovery, based in Washington, D.C., and Reporting on Addiction announced that their award for excellence in recovery journalism goes to Venuri Siriwardane for articles that “accurately and empathetically illuminate recovery from addiction and substance use” in reporting on the deployment of medications for opioid use disorder by the Allegheny County Jail.
The reporting started with the jail’s rocky distribution of Suboxone and other buprenorphine products and continued to post-release care. After the reporting, the county changed its procedure for distributing medications for opioid use disorder and moved to offer methadone to all patients who would benefit.
April 4, 2025
PublicSource won third place in the News & Issue – Visual Presentation category of the 2025 Best of Photojournalism awards from the National Press Photographers Association.
The honored project, Hollowed Out, is an immersive visual story exploring the environmental and human toll of natural gas development in West Virginia. Through striking design, maps, photography and reporting, the piece examines the role of EQT Corporation and the regulatory gaps shaping life in fracking country.
Hollowed Out, the debut installment of our EQT’s Gas Play series, was judged among top-tier national and international entries. The honor stands alongside The Washington Post and Univision Noticias in this category.
April 1, 2025
PublicSource’s investigative series EQT’s Gas Play has been awarded the 2025 Victor K. McElheny Award for local and regional science journalism.
Presented by the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, the McElheny Award recognizes exceptional local journalism that illuminates issues in science, public health, technology or the environment.
“This was a doggedly reported, unflinching investigation,” said Ashley Smart, associate director of the Knight Science Journalism Program and McElheny Award judge. “It combined powerful written storytelling with moving photography and illuminating video to tell a story that the reader can’t possibly forget.”
Reporter and photojournalist Quinn Glabicki, along with creative director Natasha Vicens, managing editor Rich Lord and editor-in-chief Halle Stockton are being honored with the award. More information and thoughts from our reporter and editor-in-chief are available in the Knight Science Journalism announcement.
Feb. 10, 2025
Pictures of the Year International honored “EQT’s Gas Play,” by Quinn Glabicki, with first place in its Local News Picture Story category.
POY is a project of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. POY’s judging process and announcements continue through February, and the announcement regarding the local news category decision was made on the organization’s Instagram account.
The series “EQT’s Gas Play” explored the impact of Pittsburgh-based fracking firm EQT Corp. from tiny towns in West Virginia and Pennsylvania to electoral battlegrounds to the global climate crisis. In October, the first story in the series, “Hollowed Out,” was recognized by the Society of Environmental Journalists as an outstanding feature story by a small newsroom.
Contact Halle Stockton at halle@publicsource.org with any questions or comments.
