Another day, another key reporter leaving Tampa Bay Times: Editor Tom Scherberger parting ways with newspaper

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Tom Scherberger, once the breaking news editor of TampaBay.com before he became a business reporter, is parting ways with the Tampa Bay Times to become communications director of USF St. Petersburg.

He takes over for Melanie Marquez, who left USF St. Pete for a media job with Pinellas County Schools.

Scherberger will handle media relations and develop internal and external communication strategies for the campus.

“We are excited to welcome someone with Tom’s breadth of experience to our growing campus,’’ Chancellor Margaret Sullivan said in a news release.

Here’s the email that was sent out by editor Heather Urquides:

All:

It’s no secret that Tom likes beer. Many column inches of stories written or ordered up by Tom on the subject can attest to that.

So it’s no surprise that we’ll gather at 6 p.m. Friday (or whenever you can tear yourself away) to celebrate Tom’s distinguished 19-year career at the Times at the Ale & the Witch, located in that plaza just west of BayWalk in downtown St. Petersburg. We’ll wish him the best as he goes over to the dark side… I mean, embarks on his grand new adventure.

So come raise a glass to a terrific guy who we’ll miss terribly and who’s pretty much done it all around here. You can encourage him to be quick with the call back and lively with his quotes. (And, it also wouldn’t hurt if you drove home the point that we do expect to get the story first!)

Peter Schorsch is the President of Extensive Enterprises and is the publisher of some of Florida’s most influential new media websites, including SaintPetersBlog.com, FloridaPolitics.com, ContextFlorida.com, and Sunburn, the morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics. SaintPetersBlog has for three years running been ranked by the Washington Post as the best state-based blog in Florida. In addition to his publishing efforts, Peter is a political consultant to several of the state’s largest governmental affairs and public relations firms. Peter lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Ella.