The worst-kept secret in Florida’s political media is no longer a secret.
Aaron Deslatte of the Orlando Sentinel posted the following on Facebook:
Since we announced internally today and it’s starting to filter through the Orlando-area political blogosphere, I am leaving the Orlando Sentinel in January after 7.5 fun-filled, sometimes stressful, always combustible years covering Florida politics. The move was a long time in the making; I am slated to complete my PhD at FSU this spring, and have accepted a faculty job in the Department of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University, beginning in Fall 2015. I am going to miss journalism, but I am thrilled to be moving to a highly ranked urban management program like NIU, where I’ll get to do lots of cool research on political markets, sustainability and local government management. And it’s time to pass the torch to new reporters who still view political and policy journalism as a public service and not just a web-traffic-chasing final swirl around the toilet bowl. I’ll still be in Tallahassee, frantically trying to finish my dissertation for the next few months, in case anyone wants to buy me a drink.
Best of luck to Aaron, whose Sunday column is as good a read as there is in Florida political journalism and whose Twitter feed has often been the funniest thing I’d read.
