Sunshine Matters

In a move signaling our commitment to digital content, I am pleased to announce the hiring of St. Petersburg Times newsroom leader Kevin McGeever to the new position of editor of VISIT FLORIDA digital and print consumer communications.

Hiring someone of Kevin’s caliber – with his depth of experience and high journalistic standards – is the right way to honor our consumers who trust us with their vacation dollars and time.  With the challenges the media have faced in recent years, it’s more important than ever to act on our position as the authoritative source for Florida travel content.

In more than 27 years at the Times, McGeever directed news coverage as assistant sports editor, metro editor and senior editor for online news, helping the newspaper and its website win state, regional and national recognition. Since 2004, McGeever was the first day-to-day editor of Tampabay.com, leading a culture change from a print-centric newsroom to a web-first publishing environment.

VISITFLORIDA.com, the state’s official source for travel planning and the No. 1 trafficked state destination marketing organization website in the country, has been recognized with HSMAI Adrian Awards, Webby Awards and Florida Monthly’s Best Florida Website award. VISITFLORIDA.com was one of the first state destination marketing organization websites to use a tag-based structure and was honored recently by Holmes Group North America with a Silver SABRE Award for innovative use of consumer-generated media in addressing the Gulf oil spill.