By Staff Report Thursday, May 22nd, 2025

The Pacific Coast Business Times took home a bit of hardware on May 17 at the annual California Journalism Awards.

Hosted by the California News Publishers Association, the Business Times won awards in four different editorial categories. The Business Times competes statewide against other weekly newspapers with a circulation of under 4,300.

The Business Times’ newest podcast, Civil Dialogues, launched in 2024, took home second place for best podcast. Civil Dialogues is hosted by the Business Times’ founder and editor, Henry Dubroff. The podcast can be found at pacbiztimes.com/civil-dialogues.

For the category of “Technology Reporting,” the Business Times earned a second place for a story package on three different profiles throughout the Central Coast, including Nexstera Technology in San Luis Obispo, Visus in Ventura County and Live Data Technologies in Santa Barbara. 

For the category of “Agriculture Reporting,” the Business Times earned a fourth-place finish for a story on Apeel’s CEO, James Rogers, stepping down in 2024. 

The tech and agriculture stories were written by Co-Managing Editor Jorge Mercado.

Finally, the Business Times won fifth place in the “Health Reporting” category for its work on Adventist Health’s donation plans in San Luis Obispo County after purchasing Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and Twin Cities Community Hospital in San Luis Obispo. Staff Writer Mike Harris wrote the story.

We aim to continue the great work in 2025 and want to extend a thank you to all our wonderful readers! The full list of winners is at cnpa.com/california-journalism-awards.