His family moved to Florida nine years later when his father, Paul Poynter, bought the St. Petersburg Times.
[1] Poynter worked various newspaper jobs across the country after completing his education.
[1][3] His most lasting legacies were to establish the Modern Media Institute, which was renamed the Poynter Institute after his death in 1978,[4] and to will his majority share in the Times Publishing Company, which owns the St. Petersburg Times (renamed the Tampa Bay Times in 2012), which likely saved the paper, and Congressional Quarterly (sold to The Economist Group in 2009).
[5] Poynter died of a cerebral hemorrhage on June 15, 1978 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
[6] In a memo beforehand, he instructed The Times' staff not to overplay news of his death and insisted there be no memorial service because "I have observed no one really likes to go to a funeral.