The Rock River Times

What The Rock River Times does

The Rock River Times is a privately held local community newspaper founded in 1987 and headquartered at 2510 Charles Street, Rockford, Illinois. The publication serves residents of the greater Rockford, IL / Winnebago County area with local news, a weekly horoscope column covering all twelve zodiac signs, and legally required public notices for the Illinois market. It operates as a free-distribution publication with no subscription or paywall, monetizing entirely through display advertising sold to local small and medium-sized businesses and through public notice placement.

The company's content operations run on a WordPress CMS (v6.8.5) self-hosted platform at rockrivertimes.com, with distribution extended through the Issuu digital magazine platform (archiving weekly editions), an RSS feed, email newsletter subscription via Follow.it, and organic social channels on Facebook and X (Twitter). The product portfolio is limited and stable: a main online edition, a dedicated horoscopes section, and a digital archive of previous editions. There is no mobile app, no proprietary platform architecture, no disclosed APIs, and no AI or ML components in the technology stack. The single named sales contact (Donna George) handles display advertising, and the single named editorial contributor for the dominant content vertical is Josh Johnson.

The business model is a straightforward local-media advertising model: the company captures local SMB marketing budgets and statutory public notice fees, with no disclosed pricing, no enterprise contracts, no investor backing, and no headcount or revenue disclosures. Geographic scope is strictly single-market (Rockford, IL), and the publication does not assert any multi-market or national footprint.

Name

The Rock River Times

Legal name

The Rock River Times

Website

https://rockrivertimes.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

The Rock River Times is a privately held, free local newspaper founded in 1987 in Rockford, Illinois, serving greater Rockford residents with weekly news, horoscopes, and Illinois public notices, and monetizing through local display advertising and public notice fees.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Rockford

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

Revenue model

1. Display Advertising: Local businesses purchase display advertising space on the website and digital magazine editions. Contact for advertising is [email protected].

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Rock River Times is a local newspaper serving the Rockford, Illinois area that publishes local news, weekly horoscopes for all twelve zodiac signs, and legal public notices. Content is distributed through a WordPress-based website, Issuu digital editions, RSS feeds, email newsletters, and social media channels. Revenue is generated primarily through display advertising sold to local Rockford businesses via a quote-based pricing model.

Product overview

The Rock River Times is a local newspaper serving the Rockford, Illinois area. The company operates a WordPress-based website (rockrivertimes.com) that publishes an online edition containing horoscopes, public notices, and news content. The primary digital products include the main online edition and a dedicated horoscopes section. Previous print editions are archived and made available through the Issuu platform. The publication does not appear to offer a multi-module platform architecture; it operates as a straightforward content publishing site.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Rock River Times Online Edition The main online edition of the local Rockford, Illinois newspaper featuring news content, horoscopes, and public notices, distributed freely to readers via the rockrivertimes.com website.
• Weekly Horoscopes Recurring weekly horoscope content covering all twelve zodiac signs (Aries through Pisces) with personalized guidance for career, love, health, and finances, authored for the Rock River Times audience.
• Previous Editions (Issuu Archive) Digital archive of previous newspaper editions available through the Issuu platform, providing readers access to historical issues of The Rock River Times.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• PublicNoticeIllinois.comminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Rock River Times publishes public notices through PublicNoticeIllinois.com, a platform for Illinois public notice advertising. This partnership enables legal public notice publication for the Rockford area.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Broad incumbents

• Lee Enterprises: Major US local newspaper chain operating daily and weekly publications across the Midwest and beyond. Comparable as a broad incumbent whose local publications compete for the same SMB advertising dollars and reader attention that sustain community papers.
• Tribune Publishing: Operator of regional daily newspapers and digital local news properties across the US. Comparable as a broad incumbent with overlapping local news and display advertising offerings targeting similar SMB advertisers.
• Gannett: Largest US newspaper chain (USA TODAY Network), operating hundreds of local dailies and weeklies. Relevant as a broad incumbent that competes for local ad budgets in Rockford through the Rockford Register Star and other regional titles.

Direct peers

• The Rockford Register Star: The principal local newspaper serving Rockford, IL, owned by Gannett. Directly competes with The Rock River Times for local readers and local display advertising in the same Rockford/Winnebago County market.
• The Beacon-News: Local daily newspaper serving Aurora and the Fox River Valley in Illinois. Comparable as a community-level daily/weekly publication in a mid-sized Illinois market competing for local readers and SMB advertisers with overlapping regional advertiser pools.
• The Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, IL): Local daily newspaper serving DeKalb County, IL, part of the Shaw Media group. Comparable as a community newspaper in a similarly sized northern Illinois market with local news, public notices, and display ad revenue model.

Regional players

• Shaw Media: Illinois-based family-owned newspaper group publishing community dailies and weeklies across northern Illinois. Directly comparable as a regional community-newspaper operator with overlapping Illinois footprint and similar local display-ad revenue model.
• 22nd Century Media: Publisher of hyperlocal community newspapers and digital sites in Chicago's south and southwest suburbs. Comparable as a regional player operating free or low-cost community publications monetized primarily through local display advertising.
• Suburban Life Publications: Group of community newspapers serving Chicago's western and southwestern suburbs. Comparable as a regional community-newspaper operator with similar local news, public notice, and display advertising model targeting suburban Chicago-area readers and SMBs.

Emerging players

• Patch.com: Digital-native hyperlocal news network covering thousands of US communities, including Illinois towns. Comparable as an emerging local-news competitor that monetizes through local advertising and represents the digital-first model that traditional community papers must compete against.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/rockrivertimes
• Xx.com/RockRiverTimes

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 Rock River Times