Media in the Tampa Bay Area

The Tampa Bay media market is Florida's second-largest metropolitan area with a variety of print, online and broadcast media outlets serving the region. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population for the Tampa-St. Petersburg Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) at 2,733,761 as of July 1, 2008. The Tampa Bay media market also includes Citrus, Manatee, Sarasota and Polk counties. Polk County is also served by media from Orlando.

The major daily newspaper serving the area is the Tampa Bay Times. The Tampa Bay Times, which was known as the St. Petersburg Times from 1898 until January 2012, is the largest newspaper by circulation in the southeastern United States at over 400,000, which is over 50% more than Florida's next largest newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel. It distributes a free Monday-through-Friday tabloid called tbt* in most areas of Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties.

The Tampa Tribune was Tampa's longest-running newspaper, first published in 1895. The Tribune was one of several local daily newspapers serving Tampa in the early 20th century, but after buying the Tampa Times in 1958, it became Tampa's main morning daily for the next several decades. (The Tribune published the Tampa Times as an afternoon daily until 1982.) In more recent years, "The Trib" published a portfolio of standalone weekly newspapers throughout the region, many of which are still published by the Tampa Bay Times, including the Plant City Courier & Tribune, Brandon News & Tribune, South Shore News & Tribune, Northeast News & Tribune, Carrollwood News & Tribune, South Tampa News & Tribune, Northwest News & Tribune, Central Tampa News & Tribune, The Suncoast News, and the Spanish language CENTRO Tampa. Stiff competition with the St. Petersburg / Tampa Bay Times for subscribers and advertising revenue led to several changes of ownership and rounds of layoffs for the Tampa Tribune during the 2000s, and in May 2016, the Tampa Bay Times bought and folded its main competitor. The Times added some of the Tribune's reporters and columnists to its staff while laying off others as it consolidated operations.

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