Eugene Patterson and Nelson Poynter, the publisher of the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times) and founder of the Modern Media Institute (now the Poynter Institute), are pictured at right, in 1977. Poynter is wearing his signature bowtie. (Poynter file)

Happy New Year! This is a special one for Poynter, which marks 50 years since it opened as the Modern Media Institute in the old savings and loan building in downtown St. Petersburg. 

I dug through the archives for a piece looking back at Poynter’s first 10 years. Since reporting on my book about old Florida hotels, I’ve started thinking of buildings themselves as characters. 

Through that lens, Poynter is certainly a character — once scrappy, now grand (but if you’ve spent much time here, still quite scrappy). Its fashion sense has always included interesting (I’m being kind) carpet. And most importantly, it’s always been a gatherer. 

One tradition I didn’t know about until diving into the old photos was that since the very early days, there’s always been a group picture for our in-person events. Here’s the very first one from 1976, outside the old bank.

We have a lot of exciting things planned for Poynter’s 50th.

One thing I'm working on is to rebuild another tradition: teach people how to tell stories. I’m working on some in-person and virtual programs as well as collecting all the good and relevant work we’ve built in the last 50 years. 

Here’s one of my group photos with my favorite storytellers, the 2023-2024 Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship. 

If you’ve come to Poynter at any time in the last 50, I’d love to hear your memories (and see your group photos if you have them.) 

That’s it for me. Thanks for reading!

Kristen