 The October 16, 2008 front page of the St. Petersburg Times. |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Times Publishing Company |
| Publisher | Marty Petty |
| Editor | Paul Tash |
| Founded | 1884 |
| Headquarters | 490 First Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33701  United States |
| Circulation | 316,007 Daily 432,779 Sunday[1] |
| ISSN | 1563-6291 |
| Website | tampabay.com |
The St. Petersburg Times is one of two major newspapers serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Times has won eight Pulitzers since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single year for the first time in the paper's history.[2] It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school directly adjacent to the University of South Florida campus in St. Petersburg.
The Times also publishes the tbt*, a free daily that is geared toward active 20-somethings in the Tampa Bay area. Its sister publication, Florida Trend Magazine, reaches another 200,000 readers monthly. In 2008, the Times began publication of a quarterly upscale magazine, Bay Magazine, which is distributed only to subscribers in upscale neighborhoods of the Tampa Bay area in their Sunday Editions of the St. Petersburg Times.
The Times traces its origins to a newspaper started in Dunedin, Florida, in 1884. On November 7, 1986, its sister publication, the St. Petersburg Evening Independent, ceased printing its afternoon edition and merged with the Times.[3]
It owns naming rights for the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa.
In October 2006, a full partnership was formed between the Times and Bay News 9. The partnership's foundations actually began in 2005, with Bay News 9's political-themed program Political Connections.
In October 2006, the newspaper was completely redesigned, as roughly a dozen new sections were added, the size of the paper was reduced by one and a half (1 1/2) inches, the coloring of the paper was changed to be "more vibrant", and the general news area (formerly known as "The Times Today") was moved to the left side of the paper and renamed "In the Know."
The Times had spread throughout the Suncoast over the years, adding bureaus in Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus counties. In April 2007, however, the newspaper closed its outlying Citrus County bureau.
The newspaper's slogan is "In the know, in the Times".
The newspaper also ranks as one of the largest customers for CSX Transportation in the Bay Area, receiving many boxcars of paper on a daily basis using railroad tracks that run right next to the printing center, located in St. Petersburg at the corner of 13th Avenue North and 34th Street North (US 19).[citation needed]
Among the subjects it has covered is the Church of Scientology, which has a base in nearby Clearwater, Florida.
A study by Media Matters for America showed that the St. Petersburg Times was one of only four newspapers in Florida that featured more progressive opinions than conservative, with 43 percent of columnists considered progressive and 29 percent considered conservative.[4]
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Politifact.com
The newspaper operates PolitiFact.com, a project in which its reporters and editors "fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups...."[5] Their evaluations are posted on the PolitiFact website. The site also includes an "Obameter", tracking President Barack 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."[6]
Controversies
In 1994, Freedom Magazine, owned by the Church of Scientology, ran what it called an "expose" about the "history of prejudice" toward minorities and women at the Times. Among the points it specifically raised were the paper's own statistics indicating it had a low percentage of African Americans in senior positions and a complaint about the glass ceiling women confronted at the newspaper. This expose ran some three months after the Times was accused by the Church of Scientology of "inflammatory" coverage based on "lies and innuendo". It also specifically accused the Times's editor, Andy Barnes, of possessing a "striking lack of sensitivity" because Barnes had said, "I don't sense that the world is about to end on this issue." In response to the publication of the expose, Barnes responded, "I don't wish to dignify Freedom by making them my judges on the questions of how we run the newspaper....They have another agenda going, and they may present themselves as journalists, but they're not".[7]
References
- General
- "Quick Facts". St. Petersburg Times. http://sptimes.com/connect/corporate/facts/. Retrieved 22 July 2005.
- "Times History". St. Petersburg Times. http://sptimes.com/connect/corporate/history/. Retrieved 15 December 2006.
- Specific
- ^ http://www.burrellesluce.com/top100/2008_Top_100List.pdf
- ^ Stephen Nohlgren (2009-04-20). "St. Petersburg Times wins two Pulitzer Prizes". St. Petersburg Times. http://www.tampabay.com/features/media/article993724.ece. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
- ^ Associated Press (1986-10-30). "St. Petersburg Daily to Merge With Sister Paper in Florida". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEFDC1638F933A05753C1A960948260. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- ^ Deggans, Eric (2007-09-20). "Media Matters Says Florida Newspapers Dominated by Conservative Op-Ed Writers". St. Petersburg Times. http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2007/09/media-matters-s.html. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
- ^ "PolitiFact.com". St. Petersburg Times. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
- ^ http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2009-National-Reporting
- ^ Globbe, Dorothy (August 6), "War of words continues", Editor & Publisher: 18
External links
- St. Petersburg Times Official website.
- tbt.com A free, daily, tabloid-style newspaper, published by the St. Petersburg Times.
- PolitiFact.com website.
- Bay News 9 a local television partner of the St. Petersburg Times.
- "St. Petersburg Times proves non profit structure can work".
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