The Poynter Institute is a nonprofit journalism education and training center in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Poynter Institute was founded in 1975 as the Modern Media Institute; its name was changed to the Poynter Institute in 1984. Poynter has owned the Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s largest newspaper, since 1978, when its founder, Nelson Poynter, willed the paper to the institute.

The Times has been Poynter’s primary funding source, but the institute announced in 2012 it would seek other funding options upon determining that the paper no longer constituted a viable funding source.

Poynter specializes in ethics and diversity as well as midcareer education for journalists. Since 2005, the institute has run News University, or NewsU, an online journalism training program. In February 2011, ESPN began using Poynter staff as its ombudsman.

Poynter runs numerous blogs, the best known of which is Jim Romenesko‘s blog on media industry news. The blog, commonly known simply as Romenesko, has been hosted at Poynter’s website since 1999, and remains influential within the media industry. The blog was renamed Romenesko+ and became a group blog when Romenesko announced his “semi-retirement” in 2011.

In December 2010, Poynter.org launched a redesign that integrated Romenesko into Poynter’s other offerings. As Poynter’s online editor, Julie Moos, explained of the site’s most recent revamp: Rather than trying to make Romenesko more like the rest of Poynter.org, “We’re trying to make the rest of the site more like Romenesko.”