St. Petersburg Times

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 2:09pm on Thursday, August 20th, 2009

The publisher of the St. Petersburg Times, Marty Petty, is leaving the newspaper after nine years on the job. Previously she was publisher and chief executive officer at The Hartford Courant.

The St. Petersburg Times reported the story on August 20, 2009:

"Marty Petty, publisher of the St. Petersburg Times and executive vice president of Times Publishing Co., will leave the company after nine years of running business operations, she and editor, CEO and chairman Paul Tash announced Wednesday.

In letters to the staff, both executives characterized her departure as a streamlining move.

"One of Marty's accomplishments is the team of strong leaders on the business side of the company, and they are ready to pick up more responsibilities," Tash wrote. "While all the details are not yet clear, we will develop a new leadership structure around them."

"My departure comes down to a business decision," Petty wrote. "Times Publishing is a smaller company today," she wrote. "The size of our management team at all levels needs to reflect that reality."

In the face of declining advertising, the newspaper's full-time staff has dropped by about one-third since its 2003 peak.

Publishers are the top business executives at most American newspapers and often outrank the editor on the corporate ladder, reflecting the institution's profit-making orientation.

At the Times, however, the editor has headed the board of directors for decades. The position of publisher has sometimes remained vacant for years at a time, while top advertising, circulation and production executives ran their individual departments."

Eric Kallgren    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 10:17pm on Monday, May 25th, 2009

The St. Petersburg Times won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing on April 20, 2009.

The Pulitzer was awarded to Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times for her moving, richly detailed story of a neglected little girl, found in a roach-infested room, unable to talk or feed herself, who was adopted by a new family committed to her nurturing.

The prize is awarded for a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to quality of writing, originality and concision, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Eric Kallgren    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 10:15pm on Monday, May 25th, 2009

The St. Petersburg Times won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting on April 20, 2009.

The Pulitzer was awarded to the St. Petersburg Times for “PolitiFact,” 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.

The prize is awarded for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Larry Clifton    

Posted at 12:21pm on Monday, May 5th, 2008

After living in The Tampa Bay area for fifty years, my main observation regarding the SP Times is it is an extremely liberal publication. A NY Times wannabe, the Times sports a heavy-handed host of left-falling editors focused more on expanding their ideology and aiding Democratic candidates than producing a balanced or credible newspaper. There are some top-notch seditors also, however, they are usually found in cities and counties outside of Pinellas or St. Petersburg, FL.