- March 28, 2024
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Sarasota Herald-Tribune Publisher Diane McFarlin confirmed in an email to newspaper staff members last week she is one of five finalists for the University of Florida’s College of Journalism & Communications dean position.
McFarlin, an alumna of the University of Florida, wrote in a May 7 e-mail to H-T staff members that the “opportunity tugs at my heart in much the same way as the Herald-Tribune always has.”
“So, after a great deal of soul searching, I agreed to be considered and am now one of five finalists,” McFarlin wrote.
The dean selection process is being conducted as part of a public process, prompting McFarlin’s announcement. The dean selection announcement will be made by the end of the month.
The announcement comes after the Herald-Tribune was sold to Halifax Media Holdings LLC earlier this year. The New York Times Co., through its Regional Media Group, had previously owned the paper since 1982. Halifax, which purchased 15 other papers in the Regional Media Group, was founded in 2009 and in March 2010, bought its first newspaper acquisition: The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The Sarasota Observer reported in December, while Halifax’s acquisition of the Herald-Tribune was pending, that some journalism-industry watchers weren’t hopeful the acquisition of the paper would be well-received by McFarlin or Herald-Tribune Executive Editor Mike Connelly.
Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst with The Poynter Institute, speculated at that that time it was his belief that “they (McFarlin and Connelly) will find parts of the Herald-Tribune run in a way they don’t like.”
Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].