On August 28, 2012, the newspaper's publisher announced that it would shift to a three-day print publication schedule beginning January 1, 2013, and expand its digital focus on its website, PennLive.com, and social media platforms.

For many years, The Patriot-News was infamous for an editorial printed by its predecessor, The Patriot & Union, on November 24, 1863, in which it dismissed the Gettysburg Address as "silly remarks" that should disappear into "a veil of oblivion."

[5] On November 14, 2013, The Patriot-News issued a retraction, saying the Patriot & Union editorial board failed to recognize the "momentous importance, timeless eloquence, and lasting significance" of the Gettysburg Address, and claimed that this failure was so egregious "that it cannot remain unaddressed in our archives.

Deputy opinion page editor Matthew Zencey said the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address was the perfect time to ask, "Gee, can you believe what rock heads ran this outfit 150 years ago?

In 2012, Patriot-News reporter Sara Ganim and staff, under the leadership of Editor-In-Chief David Newhouse, were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the story of the Penn State sex abuse scandal.

[8][9] In 2003, the paper won the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service for its coverage of the attempted sale of Hershey Foods.

In 2007, public watchdog reporter Jan Murphy won a First Amendment award from the Associated Press Managing Editors for her stories uncovering profligate spending at PHEAA, the state agency that gives college loans to students.

That same year, reporter Ford Turner won the APME's Public Service award for uncovering an unusually high rate of cancer among residents of a small neighborhood of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

"You can credit the Patriot-News with giving me the time a reporter needs to cover this kind of story," she said to a New York media columnist who specially noted her coverage.

[8] In 2018, PennLive, and its newly established in-house production company Penn Studios, headed by Director Salim Michel Makhlouf, earned its first Emmy award in the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences.