Columbia University announced Wednesday that Tampa Bay Times chairman and CEO Paul Tash will chair the Pulitzer Prize board. Tash became a member of the board in 2006. Chairmen serve for one year, while board members serve a maximum of nine years.

Tash in 2011. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tash, a former editor of the Times, replaces Denver Post Editor Gregory Moore and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, who served as co-chairs.

Poynter owns the Tampa Bay Times; Tash is also chairman of Poynter's board of trustees. The Tampa Bay Times' Tim Nickens and Daniel Ruth won a Pulitzer last month for a series of editorials on fluoride in drinking water, and its writers Alexandra Zayas and Kelley Benham were finalists in two other categories. The paper has nine Pulitzers.

Maynard Institute
Ginger Thompson's April 29 story about a former a drug war informer includes a button marked "Leer en Español". That's not new, Times spokesperson Stephanie Yera tells Poynter: "Stories are published in the Spanish language via The New York Times News Service & Syndicate or translated into Spanish, and translators are credited at the end of our articles," she writes in an email. "This practice is not experimental, and it's something we've also done in Portuguese and Chinese."

"The New York Times has published stories in Spanish on NYTimes.com for some time, either in conjunction with special projects or because it has simply made sense editorially," Yera writes. This past February, Yera notes, another story carrying Thompson's byline was available in Spanish as well.

The presentation of Thompson's article appears to take advantage of the Times' planned redesign of its article pages.

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SaintPetersBlog | Tampa Bay Business Journal | Tampa Tribune
The Poynter Institute lost $3,815,144 in 2011, Peter Schorsch reports.

Poynter’s current annual budget includes revenue streams from tuition payments from the classes it offers, as well as grants from foundations and local fund-raising drives. A periodic “dividend” from the [Tampa Bay] Times normally helps close the gap.

"[I]t would appear that periodic dividend from the Times did not materialize" in 2011, Schorsch writes.

"That did not come as a surprise to us, and we are adjusting," Poynter President Karen Dunlap told the Tampa Tribune. (more...)

National Sports Journalism Center
"Will ESPN transform itself ethically with Poynter’s guidance?" asks Eric Deggans, a media critic at Poynter's St. Petersburg Times. "Or will the Worldwide Leader cloak itself in the school’s credibility while largely ignoring its advice?" || Earlier: Poynter faculty to serve as ESPN ombudsmen.