State Attorney Bill Eddin’s announced this afternoon that his office had completed its investigation into whether employees of the Pensacola News Journal had illegally recorded a meeting between representatives of the University of West Florida and its editorial board. The SAO determined that there was insufficient evidence to establish a crime had been committed.
Rumors have been circulating for the past week that criminal charges were forthcoming from this investigation and that the top editorial personnel at the daily newspaper had either retired or been terminated because of the investigation.
As we reported last month, the departures at the News Journal were due to a system-wide decision by Gannett, who owns the daily newspaper, to reduce its work force. GannettBlog reported that the total employee cuts were estimated to be 430 people.
Here is the SAO report: 1364_0001.