Nelson Paul Poynter built the small, financially troubled St. Petersburg Times into a large, robust daily ranked among the best in the country. He also emerged as one of American journalism's most conspicuous figures--a liberal in a conservative community, an innovator in an industry resistant to change, and a loner in a field increasingly dominated by newspaper chains.

Poynter was influenced by the less strident and more responsible press that began to emerge in earnest with World War I and accelerated with the Depression and World War II. His concept of his responsibility as a newspaper owner is traceable to his lifelong admiration of the idealism exemplified by Woodrow Wilson. Poynter's boyhood recollections carried the "ringing words," as he put it, of the president's doctrine of self-determination. Consequently, the focal point of Poynter's life was turning his newspapers to the causes of self-government.

The younger of two children...