TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Janet Coats, vice president for news for the Florida Communications Group and executive editor of The Tampa Tribune, is leaving the company, effective December 18th. Coats said the decision is motivated by her desire to spend more time with her husband, Rusty Coats, who has been based in Knoxville since he accepted a job with the E.W. Scripps Co. "We've been commuting between Tampa and Knoxville for the last 20 months and we'd like the opportunity to live together in the same zip code," Coats said.
Coats said she does not plan to move immediately into another full-time position, but expects to continue to work on the issues facing journalism's transition to the digital age in some capacity. "Journalism is the only career I've ever known, and all I've ever wanted to do," she said. "I'll take a break to evaluate what I want to do next, but I expect to keep my hand in the business in some capacity. I once said journalism is worth fighting for, and I still believe that."
Coats, 46, joined the Tribune in 2004 as managing editor and became executive editor in January 2005. In 2008, she was given additional responsibilities as vice president for news, supervising newsgathering for the Tribune, WFLA and TBO.com. In that role, she directed the effort to combine all three newsrooms into a single, interactive newsroom. That effort has yielded strong results and positioned the newsroom to take advantage of the growing social media wave.
"The newsroom is strong and well positioned to take advantage of the fact that we have more journalists covering Tampa than any media organization in the area," Coats said. "I am proud of the journalists I've worked with in Tampa. Their commitment and passion for covering this community has been undimmed during a time of great change in this industry and I know they have much more success in front of them."
Denise Palmer, Publisher and President of The Tampa Tribune said, "Janet will be sorely missed. She has provided the vision and passion to create our unique, leading edge interactive newsroom. Her leadership positioned us to aggressively serve and grow our audiences. We wish Janet much happiness and success." Palmer will assume Coats' responsibilities for News for the Florida Communications Group in addition to her other duties.
About Florida Communications Group
The Florida Communications Group (FCG), owned by Media General, includes newspapers, broadcast television and online operations in West Central Florida. It incorporates Media General's converged operations in Tampa, including The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com, the No. 1 newspaper/online combination in the Tampa Bay market; WFLA-TV, (NBC) the market's evening news leader, and CENTRO Tampa, a Spanish-language print and online media operation. Florida Communications Group also includes Highlands Today, Hernando Today, 12 weeklies, and several shopper and niche publications. Source: Scarborough 2009 Release 2; Nielsen Media Research, November 2009 Sweeps Period, Household Ratings.
About Media General
Media General is a leading provider of news, information and entertainment across multiple media platforms, serving consumers and advertisers in strong local markets, primarily in the Southeastern United States. Media General's operations are organized in five geographic market segments and a sixth segment that includes the company's interactive advertising services and certain other operations. The company's operations include 18 network-affiliated television stations and associated Web sites, 21 daily newspapers and associated Web sites, more than 200 specialty publications that include weekly newspapers, and niche publications targeted to various demographic, geographic and topical communities of interest. Many of the company's specialty publications have associated Web sites. Media General operates three interactive advertising services companies: Blockdot, which specializes in interactive entertainment and advergaming technologies; DealTaker.com, a coupon and shopping Web site; and NetInformer, a leading provider of wireless media and mobile marketing services.
Media General, Inc.
CONTACT: Cathy Helean, VP Marketing, Florida Communications Group,
+1-813-221-5770, chelean@wfla.com
Web Site: http://www.mediageneral.com/
