Danya Henninger is a rarity. She’s from NYC, but considers herself a Philadelphian. She dropped out of an Ivy League university. And, more importantly, she holds a position that few women in the news industry attain—Editor-in-Chief. Danya is the Editor-in-Chief of the Philly news site BillyPenn.com.

Billy Penn is unique in the way it delivers news. They have a staff of full-time reporters that work on original and fascinating news stories affecting all regions of Philly, but they also curate and share stories from social media and other news outlets that they believe are important for their readers. This novel approach to presenting news to readers and Danya’s extensive history of writing about Philly made her an obvious choice for an episode of The Philly Blunt.

Danya arrived in Philadelphia in 2008 and has taken the city by storm. She started out doing food and drink writing. She went on to win a Pen & Pencil local news award for her freelance reporting. She then became culture editor at Billy Penn before becoming the Editor-in-Chief.

We sat with Danya at Brauhaus Schmitz on South Street. She told us about her beginnings in New York City, her short-lived time at Brown University, and how she considers herself a true Philadelphian. Danya is also working with a coalition of Philly news agencies to put forth a more collaborative effort in investigating stories pertinent to Philly and in delivering these stories to all segments of Philadelphia’s population.

Our interview with Danya also contains one of the better Philly Blunt segments to date. For her last meal, she picks a Philly Pizza joint. Which one? You’ll have to listen to find out.

LINKS:
Danya Henninger: Twitter/Instagram
Billy Penn (Twitter/Facebook/Instagram)
Brauhaus Schmitz: Twitter/Facebook/Instagram