Thank you to our sponsors and guests for making this year’s Bowtie Ball a success. 

Details

EVENT DATE: Nov. 15, 2025

LOCATION: JW Marriott Tampa Water Street, Downtown Tampa

TIME:
VIP Reception: 5:30 p.m. Eastern
General Admission Reception: 6 p.m. Eastern
Dinner and Program: 7-10 p.m. Eastern

TICKET PRICE:
General Admission – $400
General Admission guests will enjoy access to the Bowtie Ball including an impactful program of journalistic achievements, surprise cameos and a conversation with the 2025 guest of honor. The reception begins at 6 p.m., followed by the featured presentation at 7 p.m., which includes a three-course gourmet dinner, an open bar and entertainment.

Get involved with the 2025 Bowtie Ball Now

Sponsoring the Bowtie Ball is more than supporting a premier event — it’s an opportunity to align your brand with a powerful mission and connect with an influential audience that shares a commitment to journalism, truth and democracy.

As a sponsor, you’ll gain high-impact branding opportunities, meaningful visibility among leaders in media and civic life, and the chance to stand alongside those shaping the future of journalism.

📥 View our Sponsorship Kit to explore all opportunities.

We invite you or your business to become a sponsor of this year’s gala. As a sponsor, you will receive priority seating and will be recognized in all Bowtie Ball promotions and on the big screen that night. Your sponsorship provides critical funding to support Poynter’s work in service to journalism and democracy. Contact Deborah Read via email: Deborah@poynter.org, or call 727-371-0731 for additional information.

About the Bowtie Ball

The Poynter Institute’s annual Bowtie Ball showcases the most accomplished, dazzling and lively personalities in journalism as we gather in Tampa Bay for one electric celebration. It’s our way of saying thank you. Your generosity fortifies journalism’s role in a free society. Poynter champions freedom of expression, civil dialogue, and compelling journalism where citizens can participate in healthy societies.

Since the Bowtie Ball debuted in 2015, Poynter has welcomed thousands of guests who support the free press to don their favorite formal attire — bow ties encouraged — for dinner, conversation and toasts with Pulitzer Prize winners, best-selling authors, and media personalities from the nation’s most beloved and revered newsrooms.

Our guests enjoy an immersive experience and access to internationally acclaimed journalists. They leave with insight into the powerful behind-the-scenes stories about the events that have shaped our world.

The party will start in the grand ballroom with a gourmet, three-course dinner, complete with a premium open bar. Every seat is the best in the house when you’re surrounded by local and national journalists and emerging media voices.

Our event culminates with an insightful on-stage interview with one of the nation’s most revered and respected journalists, who will be honored with the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism. Previous recipients include Robin Roberts, Anderson Cooper, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward, Lesley Stahl, Chris Wallace, Katie Couric, Lester Holt, Judy Woodruff, Tom Brokaw and Bob Schieffer.

Proceeds from this dynamic event will power Poynter’s mission to improve, strengthen, and sustain quality journalism in newsrooms worldwide.

2025 Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Recipient: Jane Pauley

The Poynter Institute is proud to announce that 2025’s recipient of the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism will be acclaimed journalist, broadcast anchor and author Jane Pauley.

Pauley has led an extraordinary, five-decade career in journalism, rising to national prominence as co-host of NBC’s “Today” show at just 25 years old, helping pave the way for women in broadcast news. She went on to co-anchor “Dateline NBC” for more than a decade, hosted her own daytime series, “The Jane Pauley Show,” and next year will mark her 10th anniversary as host of “CBS Sunday Morning,” the nation’s No. 1 Sunday morning program for 22 consecutive seasons. Pauley’s warmth, intelligence and commitment to thoughtful storytelling have made her one of the most enduring and respected voices in American journalism.

About the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism

Each year, Poynter presents its medal to an accomplished journalist whose contributions to the news media have inspired and informed people around the world.

The medal was created to celebrate journalism and the legacy of Nelson Poynter, the former owner and editor of the St. Petersburg Times — now the Tampa Bay Times — who founded what was then called the Modern Media Institute for the professional development of journalists  50 years ago. Upon his death, in an exceptional act of vision and philanthropy, Mr. Poynter bequeathed ownership of the newspaper to the school to ensure the independence of his beloved local paper.

Today, the Poynter Institute, a world-renowned nonprofit for journalistic excellence; named in honor of its founder after his death, still owns the Times. Poynter trains tens of thousands of journalists, newsrooms, educators, and students around the globe in person and online each year. Clients include CBS, NBC, Univision, ESPN, NPR, The Associated Press, McClatchy and TEGNA newsrooms, and numerous local TV stations, community newspapers, and digital news sites.

Poynter also operates three fact-checking enterprises: the Pulitzer Prize-winning  PolitiFact, the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), and the social-first digital media literacy initiative MediaWise. In addition, Poynter is the home of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, a resource for journalists and citizens to navigate today’s complex media landscape.

Distinguished Service to Journalism Award: G.B. ‘Garry’ Trudeau and Dean Baquet

Poynter also awards its Distinguished Service to Journalism Award to individuals who have made significant contributions to the field. This year’s honorees are Dean Baquet and G.B. “Garry” Trudeau.

Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship and formerly the executive editor of the Times. (Courtesy The New York Times)

Baquet, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and former executive editor of The New York Times, led the newsroom through a period of digital transformation and major national coverage. He now oversees the Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship, which partners with community newsrooms to produce impactful local reporting.

G.B. “Garry” Trudeau is the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the ‘Doonesbury’ comic strip. (Courtesy Garry Trudeau)

Trudeau, the creator of the long-running comic strip “Doonesbury,” has spent more than 50 years using satire to explore America’s political and cultural issues. He was the first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning and has continued to influence public discourse through his characters, commentary and storytelling across multiple media.

Questions?

We’d love to hear from you. Please send your inquiries to marketing@poynter.org.

Unable to join us but want to support journalism? Please make a donation in lieu of attendance today at poynter.org/give.

The Poynter Foundation is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to improve journalism in service to democracy. Proceeds from this fundraising event will power Poynter’s efforts to stoke civil connection and thoughtful expression between journalists and the communities they serve.

The EIN for the organization is 99-0731998.

Thank you to our sponsors