The January 1, 2012 front page of the first edition of the Tampa Bay Times. |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Times Publishing Company |
| Editor | Paul Tash |
| Founded | 1884 |
| Headquarters | 490 First Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33701 United States |
| Circulation | 240,024 daily 403,229 (2011)[1] |
| OCLC number | 5920090 |
| Official website | tampabay.com |
The Tampa Bay Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications 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 Pulitzer Prizes 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 for Media Studies, a nonprofit journalism school directly adjacent to the University of South Florida campus in St. Petersburg. Many issues are available through Google News Archive.[3] A daily electronic version is also available for the Amazon Kindle.
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The Times traces its origins to the West Hillsborough Times, a weekly newspaper started in Dunedin, Florida (which, at the time, was still part of Hillsborough County, before Pinellas County was established) in 1884. By 1912, the paper had been sold six times, had been relocated to St. Petersburg (becoming the St. Petersburg Times), and was published six days a week. Publisher Paul Poynter bought the paper in September 1912 and published it seven days a week. Paul's son Nelson Poynter took majority control of the paper in 1947. Nelson Poynter died in 1978, having willed the paper to the Poynter Institute.[4] In November 1986, the Evening Independent was merged into the Times.
In 2003, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described the St. Petersburg Times as a "usually liberal" newspaper.[5]
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, the publishers of 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. Free weekday tabloid tbt*, which used ("* Tampa Bay Times)" as its subtitle, will become just tbt when the name change takes place.[6]
The Times has also been a longtime opponent to the Church of Scientology, since the church's acquisition of the Fort Harrison Hotel in 1975. The Times has published special reports and series critical of the church and its current leader, David Miscavige.[7]
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.[8]
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...."[9] They publish original statements and their evaluations on the PolitiFact.com website, and assign each a "Truth-O-Meter" rating. The site also includes an "Obameter", tracking U.S. 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."[10]
| Year | Award | Work | Recipients | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | National Headliner Awards | "Inside Scientology" | Thomas C. Tobin and Joe Childs | Investigative reporting | Finalist[11][12] |
| Florida Society of News Editors | Gold Medal for Public Service | Won[13][14] | |||
| Pulitzer Prize | "For Their Own Good" | Ben Montgomery, Waveney Ann Moore, and photographer Edmund D. Fountain | Local Reporting | Finalist[15] | |
| 2009 | Pulitzer Prize | PolitiFact.com | Times staff, represented by Bill Adair, Washington bureau chief | National Reporting | Won[2][16] |
| Public Service | Finalist[17] | ||||
| "The Girl in the Window" | Lane DeGregory | Feature Writing | Won[2][18] | ||
| "Winter's Tale" | John Barry | Feature Writing | Finalist[17] | ||
| 2007 | Scripps Howard Foundation | Human Interest Writing | Lane DeGregory | Ernie Pyle Award | Won[19] |
| "A Republican vs. Republican Cellular Division" | Wes Allison | Raymond Clapper Award | Won[19] | ||
| Pulitzer Prize | "In His Own Defense" | Christopher Goffard | Feature Writing | Finalist[20] | |
| 2003 | Scripps Howard Foundation | Human Interest Writing | Kelley Benham | Ernie Pyle Award | Won[4][21] |
| 2002 | Scripps Howard Foundation | "The Poison in Your Back Yard" | Julie Hauserman | Edward J. Meeman Award | Won[22] |
| 2000 | Pulitzer Prize | "Una Vida Mejor" | Anne Hull | Feature Writing | Finalist[23] |
| National Reporting | Finalist[23] | ||||
| 1999 | Sigma Delta Chi | "Deadly Rampage" | Times staff | Excellence in deadline reporting | Won[24] |
| Investigative report of U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown | Bill Adair and David Dahl | Washington correspondence | Won[24][4] | ||
| 1998 | Pulitzer Prize | "Angels & Demons" | Thomas French | Feature Writing | Won[2][25] |
| Investigative report of The Rev. Henry Lyons | Times staff | Investigative Reporting | Finalist[26] | ||
| The "Tobacco" series | David Barstow | Explanatory Reporting | Finalist[26] | ||
| 1997 | Pulitzer Prize | Coverage of the 1996 St. Petersburg riot | Times staff | Spot News Reporting | Finalist[27] |
| 1995 | Pulitzer Prize | "Final Indignities" | Jeffrey Good | Editorial Writing | Won[2][28] |
| "A Secret Life" | Anne Hull | Feature Writing | Finalist[29] | ||
| 1992 | Pulitzer Prize | "Life From Death" | Sheryl James | Feature Writing | Finalist[30] |
| 1991 | Pulitzer Prize | "A Gift Abandoned" | Sheryl James | Feature Writing | Won[2][31] |
| 1985 | Pulitzer Prize | Corruption in Pasco County Sheriff's Office | Lucy Morgan and Jack Reed | Investigative Reporting | Won[2][32] |
| 1982 | Pulitzer Prize | Coverage of drug smuggling in Dixie County, Florida | Lucy Morgan | Local General or Spot News Reporting | Finalist[33] |
| 1980 | Pulitzer Prize | Investigation of Church of Scientology operations in Florida | Bette Swenson Orsini and Charles Stafford | National Reporting | Won[2][34] |
| Times staff | Public Service | Finalist[35] | |||
| 1964 | Pulitzer Prize | Investigation of Florida Turnpike Authority | Martin Waldron and Times staff[36] | Meritorious Public Service | Won[2][37] |
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