About GovTech

GovTech

GovTech — formally Government Technology — is a news website and magazine covering the role of information technology in state and local government, based in Folsom, California. Published by e.Republic, Inc., GovTech chronicles how digital technology is transforming the policies, management, and daily operations of public-sector organizations across America. Through in-depth coverage of IT case studies, emerging technologies, and the implications of digital innovation for governing, the publication serves the managers, elected officials, chief information officers, and technology staff who run state, county, and municipal governments. With govtech.com as its online portal, a flagship magazine, dozens of annual conferences across 40 states, and a newsroom led by executive editor Noelle Knell, GovTech has become the essential trade publication for the public-sector technology community — the place where government IT leaders learn what is working, what is failing, and what is next.

Parent Company: e.Republic

GovTech is a division of e.Republic, Inc., an American research and media company founded in 1984 as GMW Communications by Dennis McKenna and Robert Graves, headquartered in Folsom, California. e.Republic describes itself as the nation's only events, media, and intelligence company focused exclusively on state and local government and education, led by CEO Cathilea Robinett. The company's award-winning brands include Government Technology, Governing (acquired 2009), the Center for Digital Government (founded 1999), the Center for Digital Education, the Center for Public Sector AI, and Emergency Management. With over 200 employees, more than 100 annual events, and respected research operations, e.Republic connects private IT companies with government and education agencies. In 2022, the company joined forces with Leeds Equity Partners, a New York-based private equity firm focused on the knowledge industries, with Robinett continuing as CEO and President.

Coverage: Technology's Role in Government

GovTech covers the full spectrum of public-sector technology: cybersecurity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data analytics, GIS and mapping, broadband, digital services, smart infrastructure, public safety technology, and sustainable solutions. Its reporting translates IT developments into governance terms — not just what the technology does, but how it affects budgets, policies, equity, and citizens' lives. The site publishes news, case studies of successful (and failed) government IT projects, thought leadership from public-sector CIOs, and analysis of legislation and procurement trends. Specialties listed by the publication include information technology, government, enterprise technology, policy and management, smart infrastructure, GIS, public safety, sustainable solutions, and wireless and mobility. For government technology professionals, GovTech is both a news source and a professional development resource.

The Magazine and Digital Platform

Government Technology began as a print magazine (the LinkedIn profile dates the brand to 1987) serving government IT decision-makers, and govtech.com is now its online portal — an award-winning digital platform with daily news, features, and multimedia content. The magazine reaches managers, elected officials, CIOs, and technology staff at all levels of government with IT news and event information. The digital operation extends the brand's reach with breaking news, newsletters, and video. The publication's editorial team includes executive editor Noelle Knell, managing editor Lauren Kinkade, news editor Theo Douglas, and senior staff writers covering beats from data and business to education technology. This newsroom depth allows GovTech to cover a technically demanding beat with genuine expertise.

Events: Convening the GovTech Community

A distinctive pillar of GovTech's operation is its events business: the flagship publication hosts dozens of conferences across 40 U.S. states, convening government IT leaders, elected officials, and private-sector vendors. These events — from large summits to regional roundtables — function as the physical gathering places for the govtech community, where relationships are built, products demonstrated, and ideas exchanged. The events model also underwrites the journalism: e.Republic's business connects private IT companies with government agencies, and the conferences are where those connections happen. For government CIOs, GovTech events are essential professional networking; for vendors, they are the primary marketing channel to the public-sector IT market.

Research: Center for Digital Government

e.Republic's Center for Digital Government, founded in 1999, provides research and consulting to state and local governments — benchmarking digital capabilities, surveying technology adoption, and advising on best practices. This research arm complements GovTech's journalism: the Center's data and surveys inform the publication's coverage, while the publication's reporting gives the research public visibility. Together, they make e.Republic an intelligence hub for public-sector technology — not just reporting what governments are doing with IT, but measuring it, ranking it, and advising on it. The Center for Digital Education and Center for Public Sector AI extend this model to schools and artificial intelligence.

Audience: The People Who Run Government IT

GovTech's audience is the professional community that keeps government technology running: state CIOs, county and city IT directors, CISOs, data officers, elected officials with technology portfolios, and the vendor community that serves them. These readers make or influence billions of dollars in technology purchasing decisions, and they rely on GovTech to understand the market, the risks, and the opportunities. The publication's service orientation — practical, case-study-driven, peer-informed — reflects its audience's needs: government technologists want to know what worked in comparable jurisdictions, not abstract theorizing. GovTech's success comes from speaking this audience's language fluently.

Role in the GovTech Industry

The "govtech" industry — private companies selling technology to governments — has grown into a multi-billion-dollar market, and GovTech the publication has grown with it, serving as the industry's trade press, convener, and intelligence source. Its coverage shapes vendor reputations, amplifies successful government innovators, and surfaces the failures and controversies (failed IT modernizations, cybersecurity breaches, algorithmic bias) that the industry must confront. As governments digitize everything from benefits administration to policing to permitting, the stakes of govtech journalism keep rising — and GovTech's role as the sector's watchdog and chronicler grows with them.

Why GovTech Matters

In an era when governments are digitizing everything from benefits administration to policing to permitting, the journalism GovTech practices has never been more consequential. The publication serves the professionals navigating cloud migrations, AI adoption, cybersecurity threats, and digital equity challenges — the people whose decisions determine whether technology serves citizens or fails them. Its events convene the community; its research measures the transformation; its reporting holds the powerful accountable. As a division of e.Republic — the Folsom, California company founded in 1984 that also publishes Governing and runs the Center for Digital Government — GovTech sits at the center of the public-sector technology world. For anyone who believes that how governments use technology matters, GovTech is essential reading.

Why Government IT Journalism Matters

Government technology journalism matters because the stakes are public: when benefits systems fail, when police databases are breached, when AI tools make decisions about citizens' lives, the consequences land on real people. GovTech's reporting gives the professionals building these systems the information they need to build them better — and gives the public a window into decisions usually made behind closed doors. As a division of e.Republic, alongside Governing and the Center for Digital Government, GovTech brings institutional depth to a beat that general-interest outlets cover only in crisis. For the people who run government IT, and the citizens who depend on it, that coverage is indispensable.

GovTech Today

Today, GovTech publishes continuously at govtech.com and in Government Technology magazine — covering technology's role in state and local government for the professionals who make it work, under e.Republic's ownership and Cathilea Robinett's leadership. From its Folsom headquarters, the publication serves a national audience of government IT leaders navigating cloud migrations, AI adoption, cybersecurity threats, and digital equity challenges. Its mission, in its own words: solving problems in state and local government through the smart use of technology — and chronicling the dynamics of governing in the information age. Its official website is https://www.govtech.com.