BREAKING: Key West Citizen Editor Chris Seymour Retires
After ten years at the helm of Monroe County’s oldest newspaper, Chris Seymour is leaving the Key West Citizen — ending a chapter that spans the Artman legacy, the Cooke revival.
Larry Dickman | Sunday, October 26, 2025 | Above the Fold
Chris Seymour, who has served as editor of The Key West Citizen since 2015, is stepping down, ending a decade defined by hurricanes, indictments, postal failures, and the slow unraveling of one of Florida’s oldest small-town newspapers — even as City Hall itself quietly experiments with its own internal restructuring.
Seymour confirmed his departure to colleagues this week, saying he plans to “pursue new professional opportunities.”
His resignation comes as The Key West Citizen — now branded online as The Keys Citizen — faces deep uncertainty amid shrinking staff, delayed delivery, and growing competition from independent outlets.
“Chris has been a steady hand through some of the most challenging years in local journalism,” said Above the Fold editor Ted Lund, himself a former Citizen reporter and sports editor. “He’s part of a long line of editors who carried that newsroom through storms — both literal and political — from David Etheridge at Solares Hill, Mark Howell at Paradise and Bernie Hunt at the mothership. A lot of us, including Mandy Miles and Rob O’Neal, cut our teeth there.
“In that lineage, Chris will be remembered as one of the legends.”
A Newspaper Forged by the Artman Family
Founded in 1876, The Key West Citizen chronicled Key West’s evolution from cigar-and-shipwreck port to a global destination. For much of the 20th century it was guided by the Artman family, who turned it into an institution of civic life.
Publisher L.P. Artman Sr. bought the paper in 1912, followed by his son Norman D. “Mike” Artman, who steered it through World War II, the Cuban exodus, and Key West’s postwar revival.
“The Artmans didn’t just own The Citizen — they were The Key West Citizen,” Lund said. “You could hear the presses pounding before dawn on Greene Street; you could smell the ink and saltwater in the air. That was Key West news.”
The Artmans sold the paper in 1968 to Charles D. Morris of Southeastern Newspapers Corp., ending the era of family ownership and opening the door to corporate publishing.
From Thomson to Cooke to Adams
In the 1970s, The Citizen was acquired by Thomson Newspapers, the Canadian-based chain whose expansion began the paper’s gradual drift from its local identity.
After more than two decades under foreign ownership, the paper returned to local hands in 2000, when John Kent Cooke Sr., son of Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, purchased it.
Under Cooke, The Citizen added a Saturday edition, launched community weeklies, and briefly re-embraced its hometown character.
That revival ended in 2018, when Adams Publishing Group, a U.S. media conglomerate, absorbed Cooke Communications and folded The Citizen into its nationwide portfolio.
With each transfer, editorial independence shrank as newsroom budgets were centralized.
A Launchpad for Journalistic Heavyweights
Before the downsizing years, The Citizen was a training ground for Florida journalists who went on to national prominence: Marc Caputo, later of Politico and The Miami Herald, Mandy Miles (nee’ Bolen) now at the Keys Weekly and Tim O’Hara, whose environmental reporting shaped Keys coverage. Adam Lindhart, the current public information officer for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and Rob O’Neal, one of the most beloved photographers in Key West history since Don Pinder.
There are others.
“Those of us who came through The Citizen learned the trade the hard way — chasing stories through storms and city hall,” Lund said. “It was full contact civic journalism. Write something unflattering about the mayor, run into them at the grocery store or doctors office? If you could survive deadline there, you could handle anything.”
Postal Delays and Public Distrust
Seymour’s decade bridged the Cooke family’s hands-on ownership and Adams’ remote oversight. He led through hurricanes, the pandemic, and the 2023 City Hall corruption probes, even as resources dwindled.
But confidence waned when Adams moved delivery from local carriers to the U.S. Postal Service, leaving subscribers days without papers.
“It’s hard to call yourself a daily when the mail doesn’t arrive until Tuesday,” Lund said. “That wasn’t Chris’s fault — that was corporate cost-cutting at the expense of the community.”
Parallels at City Hall
Ironically, The Citizen’s shifting structure mirrors a quieter upheaval at 1300 White Street, where City Manager Brian Barroso has reportedly formed a new Growth Management Department.
City officials and staffers say it remains unclear whether the reorganization aligns with the City Charter, which does not explicitly grant the city manager authority to create new departments without commission approval.
Barroso’s move, like The Citizen’s repeated ownership changes, raises questions about local oversight, accountability, and transparency — issues the paper once covered daily.
The End of an Era
No successor to Seymour has been announced. Staff were notified of his departure this week; his final day is unconfirmed. Seymour did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
“Every newsroom in Key West — even this one — owes something to that building on Greene Street,” Lund said. “From L.P. Artman’s ink-stained independence through Thomson’s corporate years, the Cooke family’s revival, and editors like Bernie Hunt, David Etheridge, and Chris Seymour — they all carried the torch for a tradition that taught this island how to tell its own story. That legacy doesn’t end with one editor. It just changes hands.”