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Another Tallahassee news service coming

Posted Feb 9, 2010 by William March

Updated Feb 10, 2010 at 05:13 PM

Just in time for the coming legislative session, another news service will start covering Tallahassee.

There are hints—but only hints, none clear or definitive—that it could have a politically conservative orientation.

The Sunshine State News, an online news service, will crank up in about two weeks, said John Wark, a former Tallahassee bureau chief for The Tampa Tribune and longtime state capital denizen, who will be publisher and managing editor.

The new news operation has described itself as “fair and balanced” in help-wanted ads. Wark wouldn’t say whether that means it will model itself in any way after conservative-oriented Fox News.

“The phrase has a very clear meaning in journalism to me—in depth, covering all sides of an issue,” he said. Pressed further, he said, “I’m not going to talk about our model.”

At least one well-known conservative political figure, Justin Sayfie, has been peripherally involved. Sayfie, a former Jeb Bush administration official and Fort Lauderdale lawyer-lobbyist, is best known for his political news aggregation service, the Sayfie Review, a fixture of the state political scene.

Sayfie said he did some work in helping set up Sunshine State News, but doesn’t plan to be involved permanently.

Wark wouldn’t say who the investors are.

Sunshine State will have some competition. In recent years, as the number of newspaper reporters covering Tallahassee has decreased, news services have moved into the gap. News Service of Florida provides subscription-based state government coverage, and the legislative monitoring service Lobbytools is now hiring reporters to cover legislative activity.