The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
of
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the ...
, and Broward County, and covers Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties and state-wide news, as well. It is the 4th largest-circulation newspaper in Florida. Greg Mazanec has held the position of general manager since November 2023, Gretchen Day-Bryant has held the position of executive editor since December 2024.
The newspaper was for many years branded as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', with a hyphen, until a redesign and rebranding on August 17, 2008. The new look also removed the space between "Sun" and "Sentinel" in the newspaper's flag, but its name retained the space.
The ''Sun Sentinel'' is owned by the parent company, ''
Tribune Publishing
Tribune Publishing Company (briefly Tronc, Inc.) is an American newspaper print and online media publishing company. The company, which was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May 2021, has a portfolio that includes the ''Chicago Tribune'', t ...
''. This company was acquired by Alden Global Capital, which operates its media properties through
Digital First Media
MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 ass ...
, in May 2021.
Overview
The ''Sun Sentinel'' emphasizes local news, through its Community News and Local sections. It has a daily circulation of 163,728 and a Sunday circulation of 228,906.
For many years, the ''Sun Sentinel'' targeted Broward County and provided only limited news coverage in Palm Beach County. However, in the late 1990s, it expanded its coverage to all of
South Florida
South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...
The Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe countie ...
'' is its primary competition, while in Palm Beach County, ''
The Palm Beach Post
''The Palm Beach Post'' is an American daily newspaper serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and parts of the Treasure Coast.
On March 18, 2018, in a deal worth US$42.35 million, ''The Palm Beach Post'' and '' The Palm Beach Daily News' ...
'' is the chief competition.
The ''Sun Sentinel'' website has news video from two South Florida television stations: West Palm Beach's CBS affiliate WPEC and Miami and Fort Lauderdale CW affiliate WSFL-TV; it was a former sister station to the latter before Tribune's publishing and broadcasting interests were split. It also publishes a Spanish-language weekly, ''El Sentinel'', as well as various community publications.
History
The ''Sun Sentinel'' traces its history to the 1910 founding of the ''Fort Lauderdale Weekly Herald'', the first known newspaper in the Fort Lauderdale area, and the ''Everglades Breeze'', a locally printed paper founded in 1911, which promoted itself as "Florida's great Farm, Truck and Fruit Growing paper." In 1925, the ''Everglades Breeze'' was renamed the ''Sentinel''. That same year, two Ohio publishers bought both the ''Sentinel'' and the ''Herald'', consolidating the newspapers into a daily publication called the ''Daily News and Evening Sentinel''. In 1926, Horace and Tom Stillwell purchased the paper. However, the devastation wrought by the 1926 Miami hurricane caused circulation to drop and, in 1929, Tom Stillwell sold the paper to the Gore Publishing Company, headed by R.H. Gore Sr. By 1945, circulation of the ''Daily News and Evening Sentinel'' had climbed to 10,000.
In 1953, Gore Publishing changed the name of the paper to the ''Fort Lauderdale News'' and added a Sunday morning edition. In 1960, when the paper had a circulation of 60,000, Gore Publishing purchased the weekly ''Pompano Beach Sun'' and expanded it into a six-day morning paper, the ''Pompano Sun-Sentinel''—thus reviving the "Sentinel" name it had discarded seven years earlier. In 1963, the
Tribune Company
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
acquired Gore Publishing. In the 1970s, the morning paper changed its name to the ''Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel''. In 1982, the ''Fort Lauderdale News'' and ''Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel'' merged their editorial staffs. The two papers then merged into a single morning paper under the ''Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel'' name. In 2000, after expanding its coverage, the paper changed its name to the ''South Florida Sun-Sentinel''.
In 2001, the ''Sun-Sentinel'' opened a full-time foreign bureau in
Havana, Cuba
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism for its coverage of health and human services in the state.
On August 17, 2008, the ''Sun Sentinel'' unveiled a redesigned layout, with larger graphics, more color, and a new large "S" logo. This is in tune with another Tribune newspaper (''
Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region, in the United States. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by pare ...
''), which redesigned its newspaper a few months previously, and created a brand synergy with Tribune's sister operation and CW affiliate WSFL-TV (Channel 39), which relocated its operations to the ''Sun Sentinel'' offices in 2008 and adopted a logo matching the capital "S" in the new logo.
From 2011 to the present day, the newspaper made significant updates to meld print media with modern media. These advances include: launching the pure-play entertainment website SouthFlorida.com and starting a video channel called ''SunSentinel Originals''. As a result of their media integration, the newspaper was named one of ''Editor & Publishers "10 Newspapers That Do it Right". Most recently, the company had signed a deal with
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...
in order to print eight newspapers from the company, which included ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
''.
In July 2024, the journalists at the paper announced their intention to unionize.
Awards
The ''Sun Sentinel'' gives annual awards to area businesses and business leaders, including Top Workplaces for People on the Move, Excalibur Award, and others.
In April 2013, the ''Sun Sentinel'' won its first gold medal in the category of Public Service Journalism, for its investigative series about off-duty police officers who engage in regular reckless speeding.
In 2014 the newspaper was named one of the "10 Newspapers That Do It Right" by ''Editor & Publisher'' magazine.
The ''Sun Sentinel'' won its second Pulitzer for Public Service in
2019
This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year.
Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
for public service for its coverage of the
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting
On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...
, with The Pulitzer committee crediting the ''Sun Sentinel'' "for exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the deadly shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School."
The newspaper has also been a finalist for a Pulitzer 13 times, including for its 2005 coverage of Hurricane Wilma and an investigation into the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
's mismanagement of hurricane aid. (The latter investigation was featured in the PBS documentary series '' Exposé: America's Investigative Reports'' in an episode entitled "Crisis Mismanagement".) It also produced a significant contribution to information graphics in the form of News Illustrated, a weekly full-page graphic that has received more than 30 international awards. The photography department has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize twice in the Spot News category. It was a finalist in 1982 for its coverage of a Haitian refugee boat disaster, and again in 1999 for its powerful coverage of
Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch was an extremely deadly and catastrophic Atlantic hurricane, which became the second-deadliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin on record. Mitch caused 11,374 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately ...
in Central America.
Controversies
In September 2008, a Bloomberg L.P. employee saw a six-year-old ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' article posted on the ''Sun Sentinel''s website about
United Airlines
United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...
' 2002 filing for bankruptcy and, due to its unclear display, mistakenly thought it was a recent story. The employee then added it as a headline on Bloomberg Terminals. The story then made it onto
Google News
Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines.
Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google ...
' front page as well. As a result, there was a massive selloff of United Airlines stock, and its share price temporarily dropped "from $12 to $3 before trading was suspended." Several days later, the SEC launched a formal "preliminary investigation" into the matter.
Since 2018, the ''Sun Sentinel'' has been preventing internet users in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
from accessing its website, on grounds of missing data protection compliance.