The Avery Journal-Times

What The Avery Journal-Times does

The Avery Journal-Times is a community newspaper serving Avery County, North Carolina, operating continuously since 1959 from its headquarters at 428 Pineola Street in Newland, NC. The publication is privately held within the Adams Publishing Group portfolio and functions as the primary local news source for this rural mountain county of approximately 17,500 residents, employing between 1 and 10 staff. Coverage spans municipal government, local schools, obituaries, sports, classifieds, and public notices, with hyperlocal content augmented by Associated Press national syndication.

The company operates a multi-platform publishing model combining print and digital channels. Core products include the print edition, the averyjournal.com website (built on the BLOX Content Management System from BLOX Digital), an e-Edition digital replica accessible via newsmemory.com, iOS and Android mobile applications, and a recurring email newsletter published Tuesday through Thursday at 6:30am. Subscriber management is handled through the Newzware platform, while obituaries are syndicated through Legacy.com. The publication also runs an annual "Best of the Best" reader-choice awards program and event-promotion features via Evvnt, providing ancillary engagement revenue streams.

Revenue mechanics blend three pillars: recurring print and digital subscriptions (with $1.99 day passes for premium digital access), display and classified advertising from local businesses, and transactional revenue from public notices and classifieds. The customer base is geographically concentrated — local households as subscribers and small/medium local businesses as advertisers — within a single rural county. Operational scale is intentionally lean, with technology infrastructure largely inherited from Adams Publishing Group's centralized platform investments.

Name

The Avery Journal-Times

Legal name

The Avery Journal-Times

Website

https://averyjournal.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1959

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Avery Journal-Times is a community newspaper serving Avery County, North Carolina, delivering local print and digital news, classifieds, public notices, and obituaries to a rural mountain community of roughly 17,500 residents through its website, mobile apps, and weekday email newsletter.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Newspaper

NAICS

Newspaper Publishers (51311), Periodical Publishers (513120)

SIC

Newspapers: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2711)

akta.pro primary industry

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

Keywords

• Community newspaper
• Local news publishing
• Print media
• Digital news subscription
• Classified advertising

Headquarters

HQ city

Newland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Print and Digital Subscriptions: Continuous subscription model with automatic renewal at the end of each term. Subscribers can choose billing intervals and receive print delivery within the distribution area or via U.S. Mail. Online subscriptions provide digital access to content.
2. Advertising: Display advertising and classified advertising services for local businesses and community members. The newspaper features a marketplace section with featured local businesses and accepts advertising across various sections.
3. Classifieds and Public Notices: Classified advertising including place an ad services, public notices, obituaries, anniversary/birth/wedding announcements, and real estate listings.
4. Premium Editions and Day Passes: Day passes available for $1.99 for single-day access. Premium editions published to provide additional information may incur additional charges up to $3 per edition.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Avery Journal-Times is a community newspaper serving Avery County, North Carolina, founded in 1959. It publishes local news, sports, obituaries, classifieds, real estate listings, and community information through both print and digital channels for residents of the surrounding region.

Product overview

The Avery Journal-Times is a local newspaper serving Avery County, North Carolina since 1959. The company operates a multi-platform news operation consisting of the averyjournal.com website as the primary digital hub, supplemented by an e-Edition digital replica of the print version, a mobile app for on-the-go access, and a daily email newsletter delivered Tuesday-Thursday mornings. The product portfolio also includes a marketplace for classifieds and public notices, obituary listings integrated with Legacy.com, and the annual Best of the Best awards program. Print subscriptions provide home delivery, while the Newzware-powered subscriber services portal enables customer self-service for account management.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Avery Journal-Times (Print Edition)
• AveryJournalTimes.com (Digital Edition)

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• BLOX DigitalcoreTechnology or IntegrationBLOX Digital provides the BLOX Content Management System (BLOX CMS) that powers the averyjournal.com website and digital content delivery platform. The CMS enables content publishing, subscription management, and digital edition delivery.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Watauga Democrat: Sister community newspaper owned by Adams Publishing Group serving Watauga County, NC, with a comparable print + digital + newsletter product mix and local advertising model in an adjacent North Carolina High Country market.
• Mountain Times: Weekly community newspaper in Boone, NC, also under Adams Publishing Group, targeting the same High Country reader demographic with similar local news, sports, classifieds and public-notice offerings.
• Ashe Post and Times: Another Adams Publishing Group community title serving Ashe County, NC, with an essentially identical operating model — print subscription, e-Edition, website, classifieds and public notices — to Avery Journal-Times.

Regional players

• Smoky Mountain News: Independent community newspaper covering Jackson, Swain and surrounding NC mountain counties with similar hyperlocal print and digital coverage, comparable in size and mission to Avery Journal-Times but under different ownership.
• The Mountaineer (Waynesville, NC): Community newspaper serving Haywood County in the western NC mountains, with a comparable print + online subscription model and local advertising base, though operating in a different (larger) county.
• McDowell News: Small-town community newspaper covering McDowell County, NC, offering local news, classifieds and public notices through a print and digital product similar to Avery Journal-Times, in an adjacent rural mountain county.

Broad incumbents

• Gannett: Largest U.S. newspaper chain (USA TODAY network) operating hundreds of community papers, sharing the same community-journalism + local advertising + subscription business model but at vastly greater scale and digital maturity.
• Lee Enterprises: Publicly traded local newspaper publisher with a portfolio of community and mid-sized dailies using similar subscription and advertising revenue mechanics, providing a public-market benchmark for the community newspaper business model.
• Ogden Newspapers: Family-owned newspaper group operating numerous community and daily papers across the U.S., an analogous multi-title community-publisher operator to the parent of Avery Journal-Times.
• Paxton Media Group: Private media company operating dozens of community newspapers, primarily in the Midwestern and Southern U.S., comparable as a diversified community-publisher operator with similar print, digital and advertising monetization.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/sportsAJT
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCaVPbDj1PfPtA0rkJOlMZzQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/ajtnews
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/avery-journal-times

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 The Avery Journal-Times