Times Publishing Company, publisher of the Tampa Bay Times, today announced plans to launch the St. Petersburg Beacon in early 2025.
The new community edition will focus on local reporting in the city of St. Petersburg. Tampa Bay Times subscribers will receive the St. Petersburg Beacon as an insert in the Wednesday edition of the printed paper. Separately, the Beacon, a free weekly, will be delivered to homes of nonsubscribers in select St. Petersburg ZIP codes and will be available online.
The St. Petersburg Beacon will be published by Times Publishing’s Tampa Bay Newspapers division, which has a long tradition of producing community publications in Tampa Bay. The St. Petersburg Beacon will include reporting by Catalyst Media Group, the parent company of the St. Pete Catalyst and Cityverse, a sister organization of the Catalyst.
“We’re dedicated to providing trustworthy local reporting to Tampa Bay, as is the Catalyst,” said Conan Gallaty, the Times’ chairman and CEO. “This collaboration helps us deliver more coverage our region needs.”
The partnership with the Catalyst expands upon a relationship that began with Gallaty joining the Cityverse Board of Advisors. Through this partnership, the Tampa Bay Times can publish local coverage produced by the Catalyst.
The agreement is intended to better serve the community by increasing coverage of local news.
“As the local news environment continues to be challenging, it is more important than ever that organizations dedicated to responsible, high-quality journalism work together to tell the stories that matter in our day-to-day lives,” Catalyst publisher Joe Hamilton said. “By partnering, our organizations can serve the community more efficiently and effectively.”
About Times Publishing Company:
Times Publishing Company is the leading source for news and information in the southeastern United States. With its broad portfolio of newspapers, magazines, websites and consumer events, Times Publishing reaches more than 1 million people every week in the Tampa Bay region.
Times Publishing, through its flagship newspaper the Tampa Bay Times, has won 14 Pulitzer Prizes and a host of awards recognizing its excellent journalism on all media platforms.
About St Pete Catalyst:
The Catalyst honors its name by aggregating and curating the sparks that propel the St Pete engine. It is a modern news platform with traditional journalism practices. A digital daily edition is published Monday through Saturday at 4 p.m.
About Tampa Bay Newspapers:
Tampa Bay Newspapers, Inc. is the most comprehensive group of community newspapers in the Tampa Bay area. TBN, which includes the Beacon, Bee and Suncoast News publications, produces 12 weekly publications around Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando counties. TBN is owned by Times Publishing Company.
About Cityverse:
Cityverse represents the evolution of local news into “civic media.” It delivers quality professional journalism, and augments local news by implementing the best tools, incentives and methods from the internet and social media to generate more valuable local content. Cityverse revolutionizes the local news business model by leveraging the attention local news generates to fuel a membership option, Cityzenship, which delivers an ever growing suite of products, services, features, access and entertainment.
About the Tampa Bay Times:
The Tampa Bay Times is widely considered one of the Top Ten newspapers in America and has won 14 Pulitzer Prizes. It is Florida’s largest newspaper and publishes tampabay.com — Tampa Bay’s largest local news website. Additionally, the company publishes the free weekly tbt*Weekend, an edition of the Tampa Bay Times, and Bay magazine.
