Sun Sentinel

About Sun Sentinel

The Sun Sentinel, also known as the South Florida Sun Sentinel, is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Broward County. Owned by Tribune Publishing, it covers Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties as well as statewide news. Published at sun-sentinel.com, it is the fourth-largest-circulation newspaper in Florida.

Founded in 1910, the newspaper has won two Pulitzer Prizes for public service, including the 2019 prize for its coverage of the Parkland school shooting. It is recognized for its investigative journalism and comprehensive reporting on South Florida.

Founding in 1910

The Sun Sentinel traces its origins to 1910, when it began publishing in Fort Lauderdale. In its early decades, it served a small South Florida community that was just beginning the growth that would transform the region into a major metropolitan area.

The newspaper's ISSN is 0744-8139. Its headquarters are at 333 S.W. 12th Avenue in Deerfield Beach, Florida. For many years the paper was branded as the Sun-Sentinel, with a hyphen, until a redesign and rebranding on August 17, 2008 removed the hyphen from its styling.

Tribune Company acquisition

In 1963, the Chicago-based Tribune Company acquired the Sun-Sentinel, bringing the Fort Lauderdale paper into one of the largest newspaper companies in America. The acquisition was followed by Tribune's purchase of the Orlando Sentinel in 1965, establishing the company's major Florida presence.

Under Tribune ownership, the paper benefited from the resources of a cash-rich parent company. Tribune's investment in the paper during the 1980s and early 1990s, a period of population boom in South Florida, helped drive significant circulation growth and journalistic ambition.

The Fort Lauderdale News merger

For many years, Fort Lauderdale had two newspapers: the Sun-Sentinel, published in the morning, and the Fort Lauderdale News, an afternoon paper. In the early 1980s, Tribune merged the staffs of the two papers, and in 1991 the News was phased out, leaving the Sun-Sentinel as the city's sole daily newspaper.

The merger of the two staffs marked the moment when the modern Sun-Sentinel began to emerge as a journalistic force. In the decade from 1985 to 1995, the paper's circulation grew by about a third, with Sunday circulation rising substantially and daily circulation climbing from 199,000 to 266,000.

Growth and name changes

Originally the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, the paper changed its name to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in the 1990s to reflect a more regional outlook, as its readership extended into southern Palm Beach County and across Broward County. The 2008 rebranding removed the hyphen, styling the masthead as SunSentinel while retaining the space in the paper's name.

As of April 2010, the paper was ranked as the 40th-largest newspaper in the United States, with a daily circulation of 180,273. More recent reporting puts its average print circulation at approximately 15,300, reflecting the industry-wide decline in print readership.

Tribune Publishing and Alden Global Capital

The Sun Sentinel is owned by Tribune Publishing. In May 2021, Tribune Publishing was acquired by Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that operates its media properties through Digital First Media. The acquisition made the Sun Sentinel part of one of the largest newspaper ownership groups in the United States.

Nancy Meyer has served as publisher and Julie Anderson as editor. Greg Mazanec has held the position of general manager since November 2023, and Gretchen Day-Bryant became executive editor in December 2024.

Pulitzer Prize for Parkland coverage

In 2019, the South Florida Sun Sentinel won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for its coverage of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. The Pulitzer committee honored the paper for exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage.

The prize recognized a ten-month investigative effort examining how 17 people could be murdered at a school considered one of the safest in Florida. The paper's reporting exposed failures by the school district, law enforcement, and social services, and its coverage prompted significant changes in law enforcement practices and school safety, along with legislation to hold schools more accountable. The paper was also named a 2019 finalist in the breaking news reporting category for its Parkland coverage.

Pulitzer Prize for "Above the Law"

The Sun Sentinel also won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for public service for its series "Above the Law: Speeding Cops," which reported on the dangerous driving of off-duty law enforcement officers. The investigation documented officers routinely driving at extreme speeds, leading to punishment for offenders in departments across South Florida.

The series demonstrated the paper's capacity for data-driven investigative reporting with direct policy consequences. The two public service Pulitzers, six years apart, established the Sun Sentinel as one of the most decorated investigative newspapers in Florida.

Coverage area

The Sun Sentinel is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale and Broward County, and it covers Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties as well as statewide Florida news. Its reporting encompasses local government, law enforcement, education, real estate, tourism, and the environmental issues facing South Florida, including sea-level rise and Everglades restoration.

The paper competes in the South Florida market with the Miami Herald, which serves Miami-Dade County, while the Sun Sentinel dominates coverage of Broward County. Its investigative team has pursued stories on public corruption, criminal justice, and government accountability across the region.

Digital presence today

The Sun Sentinel publishes at sun-sentinel.com alongside its daily print edition. Like other Tribune Publishing newspapers, it has invested in digital subscriptions and online readership as print circulation has declined across the industry.

The newspaper's archives, including decades of South Florida history, are preserved through newspaper archive services. From its founding in 1910 through its Pulitzer-winning investigations of the 2010s, the Sun Sentinel has documented the transformation of South Florida from a collection of small coastal towns into one of the nation's largest metropolitan regions.

Competition in South Florida

The Sun Sentinel competes in the South Florida market with the Miami Herald, the dominant paper of Miami-Dade County. The Sun Sentinel reigns supreme in Broward County, while the Herald holds sway in Miami-Dade, with the papers' territories overlapping along the county border.

The rivalry between the papers has been a defining feature of South Florida journalism for decades. Both papers have invested heavily in investigative reporting, and their competition for scoops, awards, and readers has elevated the quality of journalism across the region.

Beyond its two Pulitzer Prizes for public service, the Sun Sentinel has built a sustained record of watchdog reporting. Its investigations have exposed public corruption, documented failures in the criminal justice system, and held government officials accountable across Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The paper's investigative tradition, from the "Above the Law" series on speeding police officers to the Parkland shooting coverage, reflects a newsroom culture that prizes accountability journalism. In an era of shrinking newsrooms, the Sun Sentinel's continued investment in investigations distinguishes it among Florida newspapers.

The Sun-Sentinel's years under Tribune ownership produced some colorful corporate history. In 1991, publisher Scott Smith convinced the Tribune Company to invest six million dollars in a new computer service called America Online, an investment that grew enormously in value. The anecdote illustrates the resources and ambition that Tribune brought to its Florida papers during the Sun-Sentinel's growth years.

From its 1910 founding through the Tribune decades and into the Alden era, the Sun Sentinel has remained South Florida's paper of record for Broward County, documenting a century of growth, storms, and change.