See that phrase up in the top left corner? “Reported by Humans Since 2009.”
That’s something we probably wouldn’t have guessed we’d be highlighting when this site first launched more than a decade and a half ago. We’ll be changing up the tagline regularly — and if you’re the first newsletter subscriber to email us when we switch it, we’ll send you a $25 gift card.
Our rotating tagline is just a tiny part of the glow-up we gave the site, and we’re excited for you to check it out.
Easier, more intuitive, faster, prettier and more info-rich than ever before.
The general idea: Make our site easier, more intuitive, faster, prettier and more info-rich than ever before, so you can get the most out of the work you’re supporting. When you read a story, sign up for a newsletter, attend a partner event, tap into our client services or follow us on social media, you’re powering the reporting that helps inform your peers and boost economic success for your communities.
Can a website update really accomplish all that? Well, we like to think so. Here’s a look at some of what’s new on Technical.ly 3.0.
Find relevant articles with less searching
The homepage is now more responsive, surfacing the most relevant stories and resources as they happen. You’ll also find expanded landing pages, organized by geography and topic — from civic tech to entrepreneurship and business — so you can dig deeper into the coverage that matters to you.
Speaking of geography, the new “Our Ecosystems” navigation dropdown highlights where we’re active.
Yes, we got our start in the mid-Atlantic, but our reporters are also now writing about emerging tech hubs across the country, and our reporting is connected via partnerships to Omaha and Kansas City. Stay tuned for an announcement soon about our newest expansion to a new region in the country. (Want our help telling your ecosystem story? We do that.)
Better track who’s making moves
We’re also proud to introduce the RealLIST Startup Tracker, a database of early-stage companies in our communities. It’s the kind of resource you’ve been asking for: comprehensive, searchable and now part of the main site navigation.
Like our signature RealLISTs (which have really fun new landing pages: check out the latest honorees in Innovators, Connectors, Startups) the tracker is designed to spotlight companies and people you should know, and help you understand how the local economy is evolving. This is the first version, which will get updated early next year with our next wave of RealLIST Startups, and more as we expand geographically.
Connect, then learn, then connect some more
Other changes are about making it easier to get around the site and stay connected — to resources, to information and to each other.
At the bottom of every article you’ll find a scroll of past stories, plus related links in the sidebar, so there’s always more to read. You might notice we’re still keeping our reporting freely available (not behind a paywall, unlike many business-focused publications), and that’s possible because of our financial underwriters and supporters.
Those supporters include Preferred Partners, vendors and service providers we trust, who will appear alongside stories most relevant to them, so you can more easily find the organizations we recommend for commonly asked resources like coworking, legal services, banking and others.
Plus, we’ve streamlined our newsletter sign-up forms so you can quickly choose the updates that fit you best.
Newsrooms are innovators, too
It’s no secret that Technical.ly is a small, scrappy newsroom. While changes like these may seem small, they’re typically bigger and more expensive than you may think.
We kicked off this website refresh by asking a simple question: What’s the problem we’re trying to solve? We all had a few answers to that question: we didn’t have a lot of homepage customization ability; it took an involved process to introduce new ecosystems; many simple updates required hard coding; and our A/B testing abilities were limited, among other things.
So what would solve these problems? After trying a few lo-fi solutions, we decided we needed more.
We’ve always run on a WordPress CMS with several homegrown customizations. We still do, but instead of having our developer create everything in house, we tapped into the open-source contributions of the Newspack theme.
In true DIY fashion, our product team put their heads together to find a cost effective and accessible solution that works for us. Our diligent developer, Austin Jefferson, jumped into work to migrate our entire website with all of our quirks and features.
The goal of this project was to innovate internally to better deliver to our audiences externally. This is just the start of what Technical.ly is planning to do, so stay tuned for more.
That extends to everyone reading: We’d love to hear from you! What else would make Technical.ly more useful? Browse around the new site and let us know at product@technical.ly, or fill out this short form. This upgrade is for our communities — and it’s only the start.
