Florida Today

History

Gannett's Florida Today, initially simply TODAY, was built at the Cocoa Tribune, to compete with the regional and dominant Orlando Sentinel and the statewide Miami Herald. When Gannett (Gannett Florida) purchased the Cocoa newspaper from Marie Holderman in 1965, it also acquired the Titusville Star-Advocate in the county seat to the north, and the tabloid weekly Eau Gallie Courier, the latter published from the Cocoa facility. They acquired the Melbourne Daily Times in 1970.

To guarantee advertisers a minimum circulation, Gannett delivered papers at no cost to all residences in Brevard County for the first two weeks of the newspaper's life; publication began on March 21, 1966. It continued this free circulation promotion to specific parts of the county until its circulation met the minimum set for the advertisers.

Teen section

A teen section The Verge was "by, for, and about teens." The section was composed by 40 students, as long as they were under 20 (most were in local high schools, but a few attended the local Brevard Community College). The section had regular articles in rotation such as Generation Gaps, where teens and someone from an earlier generation (parent, teacher, coach, etc.) wrote opposing views to a topic. The section began expanding into other parts of the paper and throughout the week. It was originally published on the back of Sunday's People section.

At a 2006 conference, The Verge won two national awards: First and Second Place for Best News Story. In May 2007, it was announced that The Verge would be integrated with the paper, rather than have its own section. Florida Today owned the weekly Central Florida Future, originally the University of Central Florida school newspaper along with www.centralfloridafuture.com. It was distributed free of charge on campus, as well as through several nearby businesses. The Future was shut down in July 2016.

The paper publishes annual business segment magazine directories including Health Source, a medical provider directory and Legal Source, a directory of legal service providers. The newspaper website along with local news, includes coverage of space, travel, health, entertainment, weather, sports and coverage of youth sports. --

Recognition

The paper was cited in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009 as a Gold Medal Newspaper for overall excellence by Gannett Co.

Editors

• G.E. “Buddy” Baker (1978-1986)
• Terry Eberle (2002–2008)
• Bob Stover (2008–2014)
• Bob Gabordi (2015–2019)
• Mara Bellaby (since March 2019)

Notable employees

• Jeff Parker (editorial cartoonist)

References

References

1. (18 December 2024). "The long goodbye of Florida’s newspapers – read all about it". Florida Bulldog.
2. "Company History".
3. "Trusted Media Analyses & Audits - Alliance for Audited Media - AAM".
4. "Gannett Investor Relations -".
5. "Newspaper Woman Marie Ringo Holderman". Florida Historical Society.
6. "Haywire House: Own a piece of history with this Cocoa home built in 1918". Florida Today.
7. "Brevard County and central Florida News - floridatoday.com".
8. (April 11, 2003). "SABEW cites USA Today, Florida Today for overall excellence".