Title
St. Petersburg TimesDescription
The St. Petersburg Times newspaper traces its origins to the West Hillsborough Times, a newspaper established in Dunedin, Florida (on the Pinellas peninsula) in 1884. At that time, the peninsula was part of Hillsborough County ,as neither St. Petersburg nor Pinellas County existed. The paper was published weekly in the back of a pharmacy and had a circulation of 480. In December 1884, after changing ownership six times in seventeen years, the newspaper was purchased by A.C. Turner, who moved it to Clear Water Harbor (modern Clearwater, Florida). In 1892, it moved to St. Petersburg, and by 1898 it was officially renamed the St. Petersburg Times.
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 it to a seven-day paper, though it was rarely financially stable. Paul's son, Nelson Poynter, became editor in 1939. When he took majority control of the paper in 1947, he 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. In November 1986, the Evening Independent was merged into the Times. Poynter was succeeded by Eugene Patterson (1978 to 1988), Andrew Barnes (1988 to 2004) and Paul C. Tash (2004 to present).
On January 1, 2012, the St. Petersburg Times was renamed the Tampa Bay Times, stemming from a 2006 lawsuit with Media General, at the time the publishers of the Times' competing newspaper, Tampa Tribune. This decision 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.
Holdings include 1 (one) issue - October 11, 1973 (Volume 90, No. 79).Creator
St. Petersburg TimesContainer
Location JHS Archives, Room 204
Container Map Cabinet 8
Folder Drawer 3Notes
Date: October 11, 1973
Public Access