Women’s History Month: Anne Rowe Goldman
Day 24 of Women’s History Month features Anne Rowe Goldman from the St. Pete Times.
A New Jersey native, Anne Rowe moved to St. Petersburg at a young age. Three days after she graduated from St. Petersburg High School, she began working at the library of the St. Petersburg Times. It was the 1950s and she was only 17 years old. During the next 12 years, she was a copy editor, women’s editor of the St. Petersburg Times and then women’s editor of the St. Petersburg Evening Independent. She won three Penney-Missouri Awards – the top national recognition for women’s pages.
In 1966, she was promoted to the Times as newsfeatures editor, becoming the first woman in the newspaper’s history to lead a department that included as many men as women. Three years later, the features section underwent what was described as a “dramatic change” in format. She oversaw a staff of 22 editors and writers, plus copy desks and specialists in religion, fashion, food, music, drama, and art. The format was designed to make it as appealing to men as it was to women. It was called DAY and was soon copied across the country. The section continued to influence features sections throughout the 1970s. Times Editor and President Donald Baldwin said: “Anne was a very special person. Of all the journalists I’ve worked with over the years, she was among the very best.”
Information about Rowe came from the papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards in the National Women and Media Collection in the Missouri Historical Society and the papers of Nelson Poynter at the University of South Florida.
Lance and I have an article about Anne’s work creating the Day section that is coming out soon in the Tampa Bay History Journal.
