TIM NICKENS

Tim Nickens worked for nearly 40 years as a journalist before retiring from the Tampa Bay Times in May 2020 and beginning a second career as a consultant. Tim grew up in Indiana and moved to Florida in 1983 to work as a reporter for the then-St. Petersburg Times. He covered the city of Clearwater and the city of St. Petersburg – including the city’s gamble in 1986 to build a domed stadium without a baseball team that ultimately proved successful and contributed to the downtown renaissance.

At the beginning of Gov. Bob Martinez’s administration in 1987, Tim moved to Tallahassee to cover state government for the Times. He walked down the hall at the Florida Press Center to work for the Miami Herald’s capital bureau in 1990, where he spent nearly six years before returning to St. Petersburg and the Times in late 1995. Back in St. Petersburg, Tim served as the Times’ political editor from 1998 to 2001 and led the coverage of the 2000 presidential election and the historic recount. As metro editor from 2001 to 2004, he supervised more than 50 reporters and editors covering the Tampa Bay region and the state. He moved to the editorial board in 2004 and became the editor of editorials for the state’s largest newspaper in 2008.

In 2013, Tim and a colleague won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for a series that led to Pinellas County restoring fluoride to the drinking water. He has won numerous other national and state awards for editorial writing. After a journalism career that included writing and editing stories, editorials and columns on every governor and legislative session spanning parts of five decades, Tim has a deep knowledge of the intersection of public policy and politics in Tampa Bay, Florida and the nation.

Tim graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, and he received the School of Journalism’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2014. He has not missed a Tampa Bay Rays Opening Day since the team began play in 1998 – or a Bruce Springsteen tour since 1978. He and his wife have two adult daughters and live in St. Petersburg with two needy cats.