Siesta Key Observer

Last updated
Siesta Key Observer
Siesta Key Observer 15 September 2017 Front Page.jpg
Type Weekly newspaper
FormatTabloid [1]
Owner(s) Observer Media Group
Founder(s)John Davidson
Elizabeth Davidson [2]
PublisherEmily Walsh [3] [4]
Editor-in-chiefKat Hughes [3]
Founded1969 [1] or 1971 [3]
Headquarters Sarasota, Florida
Circulation 5,520 [1]
OCLC number 1241098979
Website YourObserver.com

The Siesta Key Observer (previously known as the Pelican Press) is an American weekly free newspaper serving Siesta Key, Florida. Founded in 1971 by John and Elizabeth Davidson, it is now a part of a family of twelve community and business newspapers published by Observer Media Group.

Contents

History

In March 1971, John and Elizabeth Davidson began publishing a six-page paper called The Key News to the Key. The Davidsons later renamed the paper to the Siesta Key Pelican. [2] [5]

The name of the publication changed again to Pelican Press. [2] In 1998 the paper was purchased by Journal Media Group, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, joining a large publication family with interests in other states.

In 2011, Journal Media Group sold Pelican Press to Sarasota-based Observer Media Group (OMG). In 2015, OMG changed the name to the Siesta Key Observer. [6]

In 2016, Emily Walsh was named publisher of Siesta Key Observer. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarasota County, Florida</span> County in Florida, United States

Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota and its largest city is North Port. Sarasota County is part of the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton, FL metropolitan statistical area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarasota, Florida</span> City in Florida, United States

Sarasota is a city in Sarasota County, Florida. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Greater Tampa Bay Area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Sarasota is a principal city of the Sarasota metropolitan area, and is the seat of Sarasota County. According to the 2020 U.S. census, Sarasota had a population of 54,842.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siesta Key, Florida</span> Census-designated place in Florida, United States

Siesta Key is a barrier island off the southwest coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located between Roberts Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. A portion of it lies within the city boundary of Sarasota, but the majority of the key is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sarasota County. Siesta Key is part of the Bradenton–Sarasota–Venice Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<i>The New York Observer</i> American weekly newspaper-turned media site

The New York Observer was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper Observer. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainment and publishing industries.

<i>Houston Press</i> Online newspaper in Houston, Texas, US

The Houston Press is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017.

<i>Tampa Bay Times</i> American daily newspaper

The Tampa Bay Times, called the St. Petersburg Times until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single year for the first time in its history, one of which was for its PolitiFact project. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a nonprofit journalism school directly adjacent to the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creative Loafing</span> Publisher in Atlanta, Georgia, US

Creative Loafing is an Atlanta-based publisher of a monthly arts and culture newspaper/magazine. The company publishes a 60,000 circulation monthly publication which is distributed to in-town locations and neighborhoods on the first Thursday of each month. The company has historically been a part of the alternative weekly newspapers association in the United States.

<i>Sarasota Herald-Tribune</i> Daily newspaper in Sarasota, Florida

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune is a daily newspaper, located in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1925 as the Sarasota Herald.

<i>The Daytona Beach News-Journal</i> Newspaper in Florida

The Daytona Beach News-Journal is a Florida daily newspaper serving Volusia and Flagler Counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarasota metropolitan area</span> Metropolitan area in Florida, United States

The Sarasota metropolitan area is a metropolitan area located in Southwest Florida. The metropolitan area is defined by the Office of Management and Budget as the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton metropolitan statistical area as a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) consisting of Manatee County and Sarasota County. The largest cities in the MSA are North Port, Sarasota, and Bradenton. At the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 833,716. The Census Bureau estimates that its population was 891,411 in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarasota Chalk Festival</span>

Sarasota Chalk Festival is an American cultural event of public art that celebrates a performing art form of pavement art also known as Italian street painting. It was founded in Sarasota, Florida by Denise Kowal. During the festival artists use chalk, and occasionally special paint, to paint the road surface to create large works of art while the viewer can watch the creative process. The festival is focused around the street artists who are known as Madonnari in Italy or commonly referred to Street Painters, Chalk Artists, Sidewalk Artists, or Pavement Artists. The festival is held annually in downtown Sarasota in Burns Square.

Ego Leonard is a Dutch painter and sculptor, and possibly an anonymous guerrilla artist, whose works prominently feature outsized Lego figures. Sometimes the name also is applied to sculptures, apparently made by Leonard, which have been found on beaches at various locations in the world since the late 2000s. The sculptures are in the form of "minifigures", but are constructed from fibreglass enlarged to two and a half metres in height, and have the message “No Real Than You Are” in capital letters written on their torsos. The appearance of an "Ego Leonard" giant figure on Siesta Beach, Florida, became number two on the Time list of the "Top 10 Oddball-News Stories of 2011." It is unclear whether Ego Leonard is the name of a person or merely a fictional character as the figure, but it is most likely a fictional name, as Ego Leonard can be reworked to read L, Ego or LEGO. The letters can also be rearranged to spell "A LEGO drone".

Crossings at Siesta Key is a shopping mall in Sarasota, Florida that opened in 1956. The mall is anchored by Macy's, LA Fitness, and Cinebistro

<i>Sarasota Observer</i>

The Sarasota Observer is one of twelve community and business publications published by The Observer Group, which was formed in 1995, and whose headquarters are located in Sarasota, Florida. Established in 2004 to serve downtown Sarasota, the weekly publication joined the family of hyper-local newspapers in the region which in 2012 changed its name to the Observer Media Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Twitchell</span> American architect

Ralph Spencer Twitchell was one of the founding members of the Sarasota School of Architecture. He is considered the father of the group of modernist architecture practitioners, that includes Paul Rudolph and Jack West, and other modernist architects who were active in the Sarasota area in the 1950s and 1960s like Ralph and William Zimmerman, Gene Leedy, Mark Hampton, Edward “Tim” Seibert, Victor Lundy, William Rupp, Bert Brosmith, Frank Folsom Smith, James Holiday, Joseph Farrell and Carl Abbott. He bridged the more traditional architecture of his early work in Florida during the 1920s with his modernist designs that began in the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Observer Media Group</span> American company

Observer Media Group, Inc. is a media company that publishes local newspapers and magazines in the U.S. state of Florida. The company publishes twelve newspapers, three quarterly magazines and maintains six news websites.

<i>Longboat Observer</i>

The Longboat Observer is an American free newspaper published by Observer Media Group. It is distributed primarily in Longboat Key, Florida as well as other parts of the Sarasota-Bradenton area. It was founded and first published by Ralph and Claire Hunter in 1978.

<i>West Orange Times & Observer</i>

The West Orange Times & Observer is an American paid newspaper published by Observer Media Group (OMG). It is available for delivery in western Orange County, Florida. It was founded and first published in 1904.

Edward John "Tim" Seibert was an architect based in Sarasota, Florida. Seibert was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and one of the founders of the modern movement known as the Sarasota School of Architecture.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Pelican Press". Florida Press Association. Retrieved December 25, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Walsh, Matt (July 14, 2011). "Pelican Press going back to its roots". Siesta Key Observer. Observer Media Group . Retrieved December 25, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Observer Media Group. "About Us" . Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  4. "Company Overview of Observer Media Group, Inc". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved December 25, 2017.
  5. "Observer buys the Pelican Press". Sarasota Herald-Tribune . June 10, 2011. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  6. "Pelican Press & Pelican Marketplace Change Hands". Community Papers of Florida. July 28, 2011. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
  7. "New Publisher at Observer Media Group". Cision. July 8, 2016. Retrieved December 18, 2017.