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.
History
Logo of the St. Petersburg Times in 2009
The newspaper traces its origins to the West Hillsborough Times, a weekly newspaper established in Dunedin, Florida, on the Pinellas Peninsula in 1884. At the time, neither St. Petersburg nor Pinellas County existed; the peninsula was part of Hillsborough County. The paper was published weekly in the back of a pharmacy and had a circulation of 480. It subsequently changed ownership six times in seventeen years.[2] In December 1884, it was bought by A. C. Turner,[3] who moved it to Clear Water Harbor (modern Clearwater, Florida).[2] In 1892, it moved to St. Petersburg,[2] and by 1898 it was officially renamed the St. Petersburg Times.[4]
Tampa Bay Times newspaper rack
The Times became bi-weekly in 1907, and began publication six days a week in 1912. Paul Poynter, a publisher originally from Indiana, bought the paper in September 1912 and converted to a seven-day paper, though it was rarely financially stable. Paul's son, Nelson Poynter, became editor in 1939 and took majority control of the paper in 1947, and set about improving the paper's finances and prestige. Nelson Poynter controlled the paper until his death in 1978, when he willed the majority of the stock to the non-profit Poynter Institute.[2] In November 1986, the Evening Independent was merged into the Times.[citation needed] Poynter was succeeded as editor by Eugene Patterson (1978–1988),[2] Andrew Barnes (1988–2004),[2]Paul Tash (2004–2010; chair of the Times Publishing Company since 2004 and the Poynter Institute since 2007)[5][2] Neil Brown (2010–2017),[6] and Mark Katches (2018–present).[7]
On January 1, 2012, the St. Petersburg Times was renamed the Tampa Bay Times; this stemmed from a 2006 decision of a lawsuit with Media General, at the time the publishers of the Times' competing newspaper, The Tampa Tribune, which allowed that paper to keep its exclusive right to use the name of its defunct sister paper, The Tampa Times, for five years after the decision.[4]
As the newly rechristened Tampa Bay Times, the paper's weekday tabloid tbt*, a free daily publication and which used "(* Tampa Bay Times)" as its subtitle, became just tbt when the name change took place.[4] The St. Pete Times name lives on as the name for the Times' neighborhood news sections in southern Pinellas County (formerly Neighborhood Times), serving communities from Largo southward.
Logo of the free tabloidtbt* in 2018Logo of the free tabloid tbt* in 2009
The Times has also done significant investigative reporting on the Church of Scientology, since the church's acquisition of the Fort Harrison Hotel in 1975 and other holdings in Clearwater. The Times has published special reports and series critical of the church and its current leader, David Miscavige.[8]
In 2010, the Times published an investigative report questioning the validity of the United States Navy Veterans Association, leading to significant reaction and official investigations into the group nationwide.[9]
On May 3, 2016, the Times acquired its longtime competitor The Tampa Tribune, with the latter publication immediately ceasing publishing[10] and Tribune features and some writers expected to be merged into the Times.[11] As reported by other local media outlets in the Tampa Bay area at the time of this acquisition, for many years the Tampa Tribune was considered to be the more conservative newspaper in the region, while the Tampa Bay Times was thought of as more liberal.[10]
The Times' purchase of The Tribune also allowed its circulation area to be expanded into Polk County, placing it in competition with other newspapers such as The Lakeland Ledger and The Polk County Democrat, as well as into the south central region of the state known as the Florida Heartland. In the case of the latter, the Times published Highlands Today, which was a daily news supplement of The Tribune for readers in Highlands County.[12] The Times sold the paper in 2016 to Sun Coast Media Group.[13]
In October 2019, the paper laid off seven newsroom employees.[14]
The Times received $8.5 million in federal loans from the Paycheck Protection Program by July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. By this point, they had reduced delivery to two days per week. They had also cut 11 journalists' jobs through layoffs expected before the pandemic.[15]
In August 2024, the paper announced it will eliminate 60 jobs, amounting to 20% of total staff.[16]
On October 9-10, 2024, the Tampa Bay Times building was severely damaged during Hurricane Milton by a nearby construction crane that collapsed onto the building.[17]
The newspaper created PolitiFact.com, a project in which its reporters and editors "fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups…"[18] They publish original statements and their evaluations on the PolitiFact.com website and assign each a "Truth-O-Meter" rating, with ratings ranging from "True" for completely true statements to "Pants on Fire" (from the taunt "Liar, liar, pants on fire") for false and ridiculous statements. The site also includes an "Obameter",[19] tracking U.S. PresidentBarack Obama's performance with regard to his campaign promises. PolitiFact.com was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2009 for "its fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign that used probing reporters and the power of the World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters."[20] The Times sold PolitiFact.com to its parent company, the Poynter Institute, in 2018.
For a compelling exposé of highly toxic hazards inside Florida’s only battery recycling plant that forced the implementation of safety measures to adequately protect workers and nearby residents.
Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray
For resourceful, creative reporting that exposed how a powerful and politically connected sheriff built a secretive intelligence operation that harassed residents and used grades and child welfare records to profile schoolchildren.
For impactful reporting, based on sophisticated data analysis, that revealed an alarming rate of patient fatalities following Johns Hopkins' takeover of a pediatric heart treatment facility.
"For exposing a local school board's culpability in turning some county schools into failure factories, with tragic consequences for the community. (Moved by the Board from the Public Service category, where it was also entered.)"
"For a stellar example of collaborative reporting by two news organizations that revealed escalating violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals and laid the blame at the door of state officials."
"For relentlessly investigating the squalid conditions that marked housing for Hillsborough County's substantial homeless population, leading to swift reforms."
↑ Staff (June 18, 2010). "FSNE Gold Medal for Public Service". Florida Society of News Editors. Retrieved June 18, 2010. Inside Scientology – The St. Petersburg Times reporting on the Church of Scientology is in the finest traditions of American journalism. The reporting by Joseph Childs and Thomas Tobin stands out for the ways in which it held accountable the powerful.
↑ "Prizes honor wide range of stories; Winners of the 1995 Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism included stories of natural disaster, human tragedy and courage". Portland Press Herald. Associated Press. April 19, 1995. p.7A.
The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded since 1953, under one name or another, for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series in a U.S. news publication. It is administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.
Times Publishing Company is a newspaper and magazine publisher. Its flagship publication is the Tampa Bay Times, a daily newspaper serving the Tampa Bay area. It also publishes the business magazine Florida Trend and the daily newspaper tbt*.
The Pulitzer Prizes for 1980 were announced on April 14, 1980. A total of 1,550 entries were submitted for prizes in 19 categories of journalism and the arts. Finalists were chosen by expert juries in each category, and winners were then chosen by the 16-member Pulitzer Prize Board, presided over by Clayton Kirkpatrick. For the first time in the Prizes' history, juries were asked to name at least three finalists in each category, and the finalists were announced in addition to the winners. Each prize carried a $1,000 award, except for the Public Service prize, which came with a gold medal.
The Tampa Tribune was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing Tampa Bay Times, the Tampa Tribune was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area.
Mark C. "Marty" Rathbun is a former senior executive of the Church of Scientology who last held the post of Inspector General of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), the organization that is responsible for the protection and enforcement of all Dianetics and Scientology copyrights and trademarks.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune is a daily newspaper, located in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1925 as the Sarasota Herald.
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Network. It also operates PolitiFact.
Thomas M. French is an American writer and journalist.
Nelson Poynter (1903–1978) was an American publisher and media proprietor. He was the owner of the Times Publishing Company, and the co-founder of the Congressional Quarterly. He is the namesake of the Poynter Institute.
Janet Coats is new media journalism director for the Patterson Foundation in Sarasota, Fla. Formerly she was executive editor of The Tampa Tribune.>
Anne Hull is an American journalist and author. She was a national reporter at The Washington Post for nearly two decades. In 2008, the Post was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, citing the work of Hull, reporter Dana Priest and photographer Michel du Cille for "exposing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, evoking a national outcry and producing reforms by federal officials".
The Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting is awarded to an example of "significant issues of local or statewide concern, demonstrating originality and community connection". This Pulitzer Prize was first awarded in 1948. Like most Pulitzers the winner receives a $15,000 award.
The 2009 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on April 20, 2009, the 93rd annual awards.
PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the Tampa Bay Times, with reporters and editors from the newspaper and its affiliated news media partners reporting on the accuracy of statements made by elected officials, candidates, their staffs, lobbyists, interest groups and others involved in U.S. politics. Its journalists select original statements to evaluate and then publish their findings on the PolitiFact.com website, where each statement receives a "Truth-O-Meter" rating. The ratings range from "True" for statements the journalists deem as accurate to "Pants on Fire" for claims the journalists deem as "not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim".
Lucy Ware Morgan was an American long-time reporter and editorialist at the Tampa Bay Times.
Bill Adair is the founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact and Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, where he specializes in journalism and new media, with an emphasis on structured journalism and fact-checking. He is a former adjunct faculty member at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. and a contributing editor at PolitiFact.
Angie Drobnic Holan is the director of the International Fact-Checking Network and editor for PolitiFact and was part of the Pulitzer Prize winning team of journalists noted for their fact-checking of the 2008 presidential elections in the United States.
Leonora LaPeter Anton is an American journalist with the Tampa Bay Times. Anton was a co-recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.
Sheryl Teresa James is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1991 for a series she wrote in the St. Petersburg Times about a mother who deserted her baby. Her reporting has also been in the Detroit Free Press, the Greensboro News and Record, and City Magazine in Lansing, Michigan.
Bette Swenson Orsini was an American journalist for the St. Petersburg Times. In 1980, she won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with Charles Stafford for an investigation of the Church of Scientology.
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