The celebrations hadn’t even begun yet for Andrew Barnes’ new position as chairman of the Poynter Institute in 1988 when he received a phone call that threatened to ruin everything. On the phone was a Texas businessman who said he and other investors had purchased a substantial share of the voting stock of the St. Petersburg Times, the independent newspaper that Poynter owned. Barnes, who was just days away from taking control of the Times, was in his words “totally unprepared” for the news. “Emotionally it was immensely difficult,” Barnes later said,  recounting the phone call. “I felt it was crucial that we not fail, and in order to keep the organization functioning I had to display confidence and underplay peril, at the same time I was truly afraid that we might not bring this off.” But he did bring it off. And in doing so, Barnes secured the Poynter Institute’s ownership of the Times and his own legacy.  Barnes died Thursday at the age of 86. The cause of death was not disclosed.…