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. 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.

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.

History

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.

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.

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...." 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."

Awards

Year	Award	Work	Recipients	Category	Result
2009	Pulitzer Prize	PolitiFact.com	Bill Adair, Washington bureau chief	National Reporting	Won
		"The Girl in the Window"	Lane DeGregory, staff writer	Feature Writing	Won
2007	Scripps Howard Foundation	Human Interest Writing	Lane DeGregory	Ernie Pyle Award	Won
		"A Republican vs. Republican Cellular Division"	Wes Allison	Raymond Clapper Award	Won
2003	Scripps Howard Foundation	Human Interest Writing	Kelley Benham	Ernie Pyle Award	Won
2002	Scripps Howard Foundation	"The Poison in Your Back Yard"	Julie Hauserman	Edward J. Meeman Award	Won
1999	Sigma Delta Chi	"Deadly Rampage"	Times staff	Excellence in deadline reporting	Won
		Investigative report of U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown	Bill Adair and David Dahl	Washington correspondence	Won
1998	Pulitzer Prize	"Angels & Demons"	Thomas French	Feature Writing	Won
1995	Pulitzer Prize	"Final Indignities"	Jeffrey Good	Editorial Writing	Won
1991	Pulitzer Prize	"A Gift Abandoned"	Sheryl James	Feature Writing	Won
1985	Pulitzer Prize	Corruption in Pasco County sheriff's department	Lucy Morgan and Jack Reed	Investigative Reporting	Won
1980	Pulitzer Prize	Investigation of Church of Scientology operations in Florida	Bette Swenson Orsini and Charles Stafford	National Reporting	Won
1964	Pulitzer Prize	Investigation of Florida Turnpike Authority	Times staff	Meritorious Public Service	Won

Notes

1. http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2009-National-Reporting

References

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".