karen_brown_dunlap.jpgST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – The president of the Poynter Institute, a journalism foundation that also owns the Tampa Bay Times and Florida Trend magazine, has announced that she is retiring. Karen Brown Dunlap announced Monday that she will retire in January.

The Tampa Bay Times (http://bit.ly/HdKmMa) reports the 62-year-old Nashville native joined the faculty of Poynter in 1989 and became its president in 2003.

Dunlap is the first African-American member of the Times Publishing Co. board. She told Poynter's staff the institution needs to “take some big steps'' to guarantee its future.

The school has faced some of the same economic challenges affecting the media industry it serves.

Tampa Bay Times CEO Paul Tash says the Poynter board will meet next week and he will organize a committee to begin searching for Dunlap's successor.