Matt Waite

Professor of Practice

Matt Waite is a professor of practice at the College of Journalism and Mass Communication, teaching reporting and digital product development. He is also a graduate of the college, earning his Bachelors of Journalism in 1997.

Prior to joining the faculty, he was the Senior News Technologist for the St. Petersburg Times of Florida and the principal developer of the Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact. In 2007, he began working as a hybrid journalist/programmer, combining reporting experience and web development to create new platforms for journalism. The first platform he developed was PolitiFact, a website that fact checks what politicians say. The site became the first website awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. After PolitiFact, he and the New Products Development Team built journalistic products involving entertainment listings, high school sports, local crime and real estate. His projects tripled traffic to high school sports content, doubled local audience, won awards and accounted for more than 50 percent of all traffic to the St. Petersburg Times websites in less than a year.