Peter Schorsch, publisher of floridapolitics.com, is in the midst of a multi-faceted media expansion in Tampa Bay and across Florida.
The push includes co-hosting a new podcast, hiring new reporters, the relaunch of the news site The Tampa Bay 100, and the launch of a sister website, The St. Pete 100. Schorsch’s company, Extensive Enterprises Media (EEM) is helping rethink the future of the 100 companies’ Tampa Bay websites.
“I’m going to look at The St. Pete 100 as a stand-alone, hyperlocal news website, with micro-stories about all the intel that we get about local politics, but also, real estate, restaurants, and sports,” Schorsch says. “I see it as a return to my roots with what I wrote about with Saintpetersblog.”
He anticipates that eventually, he can turn the Tampa Bay and St. Pete 100 websites into daily news vehicles, with a newsletter sent out to thousands of people containing 12-15 short pieces of news every day.
Reporters Janelle Irwin, Phil Ammann and Jason Delgado are some of the Florida Politics reporters that already have bylines in The Tampa Bay 100.
“We are very excited about the re-launch for many reasons,” says Chris Schroder, CEO and founder of the 100 Companies.
Schroder says that the re-launch confirms that Florida is the company’s most robust state. This will mark five brands operating throughout Florida: The Miami 100, The SWFL 100 (Ft. Myers and Naples), the OJT 100 (Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee), and the two Tampa Bay brands. The 100 Companies have now launched their platform in 28 markets.
“Tampa has been one of our strongest markets since its launch in 2016,” Schroder adds.
On the challenge of telling stories in 100 words exactly, Schorsch says that “there’s a certain less-is-more beauty” in delivering news in such a succinct way.
Schorsch has also started a new podcast called “State of Emergency” which he co-hosts with Jared Moskowitz.
“It’s called ‘State of Emergency’ for a reason,” says Moskowitz. “Florida seems to be perpetually caught in one.”
Moskowitz was the Director of Emergency Management, appointed by Ron DeSantis, and served from January of 2019 to April of this year. Previously, he was a Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives for the 97th District from 2012-2019.
The podcast, launched in early June, is already three episodes deep. Moskowitz says he and Schorsch will discuss the Miami Surfside Condo Collapse during their upcoming fourth episode. They aim to discuss the situation in a raw, unfiltered way, as they have done during their other podcast episodes.
“No subject will be off-limits — including the latest political news and the implications around the state — filtered through the lens of Moskowitz’s deep Florida roots and experience and Schorsch's unmatched access to the state's influencer class,” their podcast description reads.
Schorsch has also hired three new reporters for floridapolitics.com, which he says will lead to more robust reporting across the state, and a new vertical strictly about Miami politics.
If all this wasn’t enough, he’s also working on a site that he says will be the “rotten tomatoes'' of politics in time for the upcoming elections. He can’t reveal too much just yet, but the site will aggregate negative political ads from across the country. Visitors will have the opportunity to “snarkily rate” the ads, Schorsch says. The domain name: negativepolitics.com.
All of Schorsch’s efforts boil down to creating a more robust and interesting media market in Florida. “People have a need for more and innovative ways to learn about politics in this state,” says Schorsch.
Editor's note: Creative Loafing Tampa Bay has a content sharing partnership with Florida Politics.
UPDATED 07/03/21 2:25 p.m. Updated Chris Schroder's last name.
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This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2021.