Times Publishing Company

What Times Publishing Company does

Times Publishing Company is a privately held, independent regional media company headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, founded in 1884 as the West Hillsborough Times and owned since 1978 by the nonprofit Poynter Institute. Its flagship Tampa Bay Times is the largest newspaper in the southeastern United States, supported by a portfolio of 13 titles under the Tampa Bay Beacons network (circulation 350,000+), the Florida Trend business publication, Bay magazine, free e-newsletters including the five-day-a-week Daystarter, and consumer events including senior, boat and home shows. The combined platform reaches more than one million people weekly in the Tampa Bay region.

The company operates a digital-first multi-platform media stack spanning print, web, mobile app, email newsletters, live events, and a recently launched ticketing and event-listing platform. Investigative journalism is the structural differentiator, with 14 Pulitzer Prizes including the 2022 Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting (the Poisoned project) and the 2021 Pulitzer for Local Reporting, and a track record of measurable civic impact including $43 million in hospital settlements, school discipline reform, and water fluoridation restoration. Following the 2016 acquisition of the Tampa Tribune and the 2021 outsourcing of print production to Gannett, the company is positioned as the consolidated Tampa Bay market leader.

Revenue is generated across four streams: print and digital subscriptions (recurring), print and digital advertising (local and regional SMB), consumer events (vendor-customer transactions), and a new transaction-fee ticketing and event-listing platform. Subscription and advertising rates are not publicly disclosed. The customer base is fragmented across individual readers, long-tail local advertisers, event attendees and vendors, and Florida business readers served by Florida Trend. Senior leadership recruited from Cox Enterprises, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Oregonian, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, BBC Culture and Boston Globe indicates a strategic emphasis on digital subscriber economics and operational discipline alongside the company's traditional journalism-led value proposition.

Name

Times Publishing Company

Legal name

Times Publishing Company

Website

https://company.tampabay.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1884

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Times Publishing Company is an independent, nonprofit-owned regional media company operating the Tampa Bay Times, the largest newspaper in the southeastern US, plus 13 Tampa Bay Beacons titles, Florida Trend, newsletters, events and a ticketing platform, serving over one million Tampa Bay readers weekly.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Newspaper Publishing

NAICS

Newspaper Publishers (513110), Periodical Publishers (51312)

SIC

Newspapers: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2711), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Local & Regional Newspapers (Print & Digital) (MPAJADAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Business, Financial & Trade News Publishers (MPAJADAC), News, Politics & Current Affairs Magazines (MPAJAEAO)

Keywords

• Local newspaper publishing
• Daily newspaper
• Investigative journalism
• Digital subscriptions
• Consumer events

Headquarters

HQ city

St. Petersburg

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Print and Digital Subscriptions: Subscription revenue from the Tampa Bay Times and 13 publication titles, including digital subscriptions, print subscriptions, and e-newsletter services
2. Advertising: Print and digital advertising revenue across all publication titles, including client strategy and advertising services
3. Consumer Events: Revenue from consumer shows including senior shows, boat shows, and home shows that bring vendors and customers together
4. Ticketing and Event Listing Platform: New ticketing and event listing platform launched to serve the Tampa Bay community

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels8 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Times Publishing Company is a regional newspaper and magazine publisher whose flagship product is the Tampa Bay Times, Florida's largest daily newspaper and the largest newspaper in the southeastern United States. The company sells print and digital subscriptions, advertising across its portfolio of 13 community titles and Florida Trend, free e-newsletters such as the Daystarter, live consumer events (senior, boat, and home shows), and a ticketing and event listing platform, reaching more than 1 million people weekly in the Tampa Bay region.

Product overview

Times Publishing Company operates a multi-platform media portfolio centered on the Tampa Bay Times (Florida's largest daily newspaper and the southeastern U.S.'s largest), complemented by Florida Trend (business publication), Tampa Bay Beacons (13 titles network), Bay Magazine, e-Newsletters (including Daystarter), and consumer events/shows. Special investigative projects like Rising Threat and Poisoned (2022 Pulitzer Prize winner) demonstrate the company's investigative journalism capabilities across all platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Tampa Bay Times Flagship daily newspaper of Times Publishing Company; Florida's largest daily newspaper and the largest newspaper in the southeastern United States, with 14 Pulitzer Prizes including the 2022 Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting. Distributed in print and via the Tampa Bay Times website and mobile app, and includes a daily Daystarter e-newsletter.
• Florida Trend
• Tampa Bay Beacons
• Bay Magazine
• e-Newsletters (Daystarter and topic newsletters)
• Spotlight Tampa Bay
• Ticketing and Event Listing Platform
• Consumer Events (Senior, Boat, and Home Shows)

Quantifiable outcome

• Pinellas County school board revamped discipline policies after Failure Factories investigation
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered major and flagship.

• National Hurricane CentermajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022Two-year partnership on the Rising Threat project where the Times partnered with the National Hurricane Center to uncover how climate change has increased flood risk to properties in the Tampa Bay area
• Modern Media Institute (now Poynter Institute)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1978Nelson Poynter bequeathed the newspaper to the Modern Media Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists that would later bear his name. This gift ensured the Times would remain locally and privately-owned and unencumbered by chain newspaper pressures

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Gannett: Largest US newspaper chain (USA TODAY and ~200 regional dailies). Comparable as a multi-title regional newspaper operator with national scale, though it is a publicly traded, PE-influenced chain — the structural counterpoint to Times Publishing's nonprofit ownership.
• The New York Times Company: Owner of the New York Times, the gold-standard national newspaper with industry-leading digital subscription growth. Comparable as a Pulitzer-winning newspaper operator with subscription-first digital strategy, though at substantially larger scale and broader geographic reach.
• Hearst Newspapers: Division of Hearst Corporation operating 25+ dailies including the San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle. Comparable as a large-scale multi-title regional newspaper operator with diversified revenue across print, digital, and events.

Direct peers

• McClatchy: Regional newspaper chain operating major dailies including the Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, and Charlotte Observer. Comparable as a multi-regional newspaper group with print/digital subscription models, similar mid-market metro footprint, and exposure to print decline dynamics.
• Lee Enterprises: Operator of 75+ daily newspapers across mid-size US markets, including the Buffalo News and St. Louis Dispatch. Comparable as a regional newspaper group with subscription and advertising revenue mix, focused on community-level news in similar-size markets.
• Tribune Publishing: Owns major metropolitan dailies including the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and Baltimore Sun. Comparable as a multi-title newspaper publisher serving major US metros with subscription, advertising, and digital revenue streams.
• Boston Globe Media Partners: Privately held regional media company owning the Boston Globe and STAT News. Comparable as an independent, Pulitzer-winning metro newspaper with strong digital subscription growth and award-winning investigative journalism — a model parallel to Times Publishing.
• Minneapolis Star Tribune: Privately held major metro daily serving the Twin Cities. Comparable as a top-tier regional newspaper with strong journalism brand, multi-platform distribution, and similar revenue mix of subscriptions, advertising, and events.
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Major metro daily in Pittsburgh, also family-owned and operating independently. Comparable as an independently owned regional newspaper with strong investigative journalism reputation and a similar editorial independence model.

Emerging players

• Politico: Digital-native political news organization with strong national brand. Comparable as a Pulitzer-winning news brand (PolitFact was originally a Tampa Bay Times project) competing for digital subscriptions, political advertising, and national political audience attention.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/TB_Times
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/wwwtampabaycom
• Facebookfacebook.com/tampabaycom
• Instagraminstagram.com/tampabaytimes/?hl=en
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tampa-bay-times-times-publishing-co

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Times Publishing Company