Tampa Tribune Executive Editor Janet Coats announced today that she is stepping down from her role at the paper, effective December 18th.
In a press release, Coats says she made the decision to - you guessed it- spend more time with the family, in this case, husband Rusty Coats, who lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Coats joined the Tribune in 2004 and became executive editor in 2005. In 2008, she was named vice president for news for the Tribune, TBO.Com and WFLA Newschannel 8.
Denise Palmer, the Publisher and President of the Tribune, will replace Coats. Palmer said of Coats today, "Janet will be sorely missed. She has provided the vision and passion to create our unique, leading edge interactive newsroom."
Coats was at the Tribune in one of the most difficult times in the history of the paper, in one of the worst environments for newspapers, ever. Those rough conditions were described in detail last year by former News & Politics Editor Wayne Garcia.
Rumors that the Trib were about to go under were so fierce at this time last year that Coats and Palmer wrote an op-ed in their own paper called,"This Newspaper is Fighting Back."
