''Florida Today'' is the major daily newspaper serving

Brevard County, Florida Brevard County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 606,612, making it the 10th-most populated county in Florida. The official county seat is located in Ti ...

Al Neuharth Allen Harold "Al" Neuharth (March 22, 1924 – April 19, 2013) was an American businessman, author, and columnist born in Eureka, South Dakota. He was the founder of ''USA Today'', The Freedom Forum, and its Newseum. Early life Al Neuharth was bo ...

of the

Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Circulation of the paper tends to be higher in the winter, lower in summer.

History

Gannett Building (Rockledge, Florida) 002

Gannett's ''Florida Today'', initially simply ''TODAY'', was built at the ''Cocoa Tribune'', to compete with the regional and dominant ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'' and the statewide ''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...

''. When Gannett (Gannett Florida) acquired the Cocoa newspaper, 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. Both the Titusville and Melbourne papers maintained their independence and continued to be printed at each publication's own facility.

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.

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

*Terry Eberle (2002–2008) *Bob Stover (2008–2014) *Bob Gabordi (2015–2019) *Mara Bellaby (since March 2019)

Notable employees

Jeff Parker (editorial cartoonist) Jeff Parker has been an editorial cartoonist for ''Florida Today'', which serves Florida's Space Coast, since 1992. He also assists Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist Mike Peters (cartoonist) with his comic strip, '' Mother Goose & Grimm'' and w ...

References

External links

* * {{Metro Orlando Newspapers published in Florida Brevard County, Florida Gannett publications Melbourne, Florida 1966 establishments in Florida Publications established in 1966