For more than 40 years, the Poynter Institute has been a major force in sustaining and improving the quality of both local and global journalism. The site, on Third Street S facing Bayboro Harbor, also is a venue for stimulating forums about news and politics that are open to the public.
Nelson Poynter, the longtime owner and publisher of the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times), founded the Modern Media Institute in 1975 to study and teach what makes the best journalism work. Upon his death in 1978, the nonprofit entity became owner of the newspaper; it was renamed in his memory in 1984. Poynter has evolved along with the media world, and its courses for journalists and academics include digital media and fact-checking. Clearly, its efforts are more important than ever at a time when trust in the media is often publicly challenged.
Poynter’s 49,000-square-foot modern-architecture campus includes a striking mahogany and marble great hall as well as classrooms, media laboratories, and offices for resident faculty. It is a destination for classes, seminars, national media-industry conferences, and awards dinners.
Each year, Poynter trains more than 100,000 journalists, educators and students from all 50 states and dozens of nations. With many prominent visitors, the institute schedules at least one event per quarter, allowing local residents the opportunity to hear accomplished media figures speak. Recent presenters have included Judy Woodruff of PBS, Kai Ryssdal of NPR and David Axelrod of CNN. Panel discussions scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year include a conversation about business and the economy by NBC correspondents in October and a review of midterm election results by journalists from the Tampa Bay Times, Poynter, ABC and CNBC in November.
Poynter’s website cites the institute’s support for “the essential role of responsible journalism in a democracy.” As challenges of media accuracy and allegations of “fake news” have accelerated, Poynter has been a leader in improving fact-checking capabilities worldwide. It owns PolitiFact, which was developed by the Tampa Bay Times and rates statements by politicians and media figures on a “Truth-O-Meter” scale. Poynter also launched the International Fact-Checking Network in 2015 to support initiatives and best practices. IFCN monitors and publishes articles about fact-checking trends and issues, promotes standards, provides training and fellowships, and holds an annual global fact conference.
Additional areas of emphasis at Poynter include ethics, innovation, digital tools, and information literacy. The school offers courses, webinars and in-person training in ethical standards and principles to support journalism’s role in a healthy democracy. Poynter’s support of innovation focuses largely on the transformation of local media with its Local News Innovation channel and program. The digital tools program provides training and information about the best tools to help journalists gather and present information in an era of shrinking budgets and audience attention spans. Poynter has partnered with Google and Stanford University on a news and information literacy project called MediaWise, which is aimed at helping teens tell fact from fiction online.
Poynter also has kept the Tampa Bay Times independent and relevant as Tampa’s Bay’s only major daily newspaper. It has won 12 Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, including two in 2009. The Times has a circulation of 240,000 daily and 391,000 on Sundays, plus 311,000 local monthly unique visitors at its tampabay.com website.
Nelson Poynter’s legacy is flourishing. Poynter is self-sustaining, relying on donations, contributions, tuition, membership fees, advertising, and rental income for weddings and other special events.
For information on community events as well as activities and trends at Poynter and in journalism: poynter.org
For information and to make a contribution and support Poynter’s mission: poynter.org/support-poynter
