Janet Coats (born May 6, 1963, in Cleveland, Tennessee) is new media journalism director for the Patterson Foundation in Sarasota, Fla.[1] Formerly she was executive editor of The Tampa Tribune.>[2] Coats grew up in Ooltewah, Tennessee.
[3] A 1984 graduate of the University of Missouri with a bachelor of journalism degree, Coats began her career as a reporter at the Irving (Texas) Daily News,[3] later working as a reporter or editor at the Stuart (Fla.) News, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Wichita (Kansas) Eagle and Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, finishing at that paper as executive editor.
She was briefly dean of the faculty of the Poynter Institute[4] before joining the Tribune in 2005.
She advanced there, finishing as executive editor and vice president of the news operation at Florida Communications Group in 2009.
[1] Coats served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize five times[5] and served on the board of the American Society of Newspaper Editors from 2003 until 2009.