What Your Town Monthly does

Your Town Monthly is a community-focused publishing and direct mail advertising company serving residential and SMB audiences across the East Bay (Contra Costa and Alameda Counties) and Solano County regions of California. The company operates a network of eight regional monthly magazine editions, launched between 1990 and 2007, covering Vacaville, Benicia/Vallejo/American Canyon, Fairfield/Suisun City, Dixon/Winters, Livermore, Pleasanton/Dublin, San Ramon/Danville, and Walnut Creek/Lafayette. Distribution is anchored on direct mail to specific residential zip codes, with reported reach of over 44,000 mailboxes in the San Ramon/Danville edition and 35,000 in Pleasanton/Dublin, supplemented by physical pickup locations at local chambers, city halls, and community centers, digital editions hosted on Issuu, a MailChimp email newsletter, and an online events calendar.

The product stack runs on a standard digital publishing architecture: WordPress CMS for the website, Issuu for digital magazine rendering and distribution, and MailChimp for newsletter delivery, with no proprietary technology, APIs, or AI/ML components disclosed. Products and services are the eight core regional publications, custom publications and gift guides (such as event programs), the digital editions, the events calendar, the email newsletter, and the core advertising offering that sells display and directory placements to local businesses. The company also operates a referral program paying 10% commissions on referred new advertisers.

The business model is direct-to-SMB advertising sales, with a 6-month minimum commitment on ad placements, tiered by ad size (full page down to 1/8 page) and a lower-tier business directory listing. Full-page rates range from $550 per month in Dixon/Winters to $1,245 per month in the premium San Ramon/Danville market, with directory listings priced $50–$75 per month. Go-to-market is sales-led, combining website inquiries, referral-sourced leads, and direct outreach to local businesses, supplemented by event-driven community content that drives reader engagement and advertiser demand. The company is privately held, with S and J Advertising referenced as the operating entity in website branding, and is headquartered in Vacaville, California.

Name

Your Town Monthly

Legal name

Your Town Monthly

Website

https://yourtownmonthly.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Your Town Monthly is a privately held community magazine and direct mail advertising company operating eight regional monthly editions across California's East Bay and Solano County, selling display and directory advertising to local small and medium businesses and distributing print and digital issues to residential mailboxes.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Publications & Direct Mail Advertising

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (513120), Newspaper Publishers (513110)

SIC

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

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industry

Arts, Culture & Literary Magazines (MPAJAEAN)

Keywords

• Community magazine publishing
• Direct mail advertising
• Local print publications
• Hyperlocal advertising
• Regional community magazines

Headquarters

HQ city

Vacaville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Print Display Advertising: Primary revenue stream from local businesses purchasing display advertising space in monthly printed publications distributed via direct mail to residential addresses. Ad rates vary by publication size and geographic market.
2. Business Directory Listings: Lower-tier advertising option allowing businesses to purchase directory listings within specific geographic editions at reduced rates compared to display ads.
3. Digital Edition Access: Free digital editions hosted on Issuu platform drive online engagement while maintaining print advertising model. Digital access complements print distribution.
4. Referral Program: Referral dollars program incentivizes existing advertisers and community members to refer new advertising customers in exchange for 10% referral payment upon new advertiser payment.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Your Town Monthly publishes and distributes a network of monthly community magazines across eight regional editions in the East Bay and Solano County, California, delivering local content and targeted advertising directly to residential mailboxes. The company sells print display advertising, business directory listings, and custom publication services to local small and medium businesses seeking hyper-local community reach. The publications are complemented by digital editions on Issuu, an online events calendar, and email newsletters via MailChimp.

Product overview

Your Town Monthly is a regional community publications company operating as a network of eight distinct monthly magazine editions covering communities across the East Bay (Contra Costa and Alameda Counties) and Solano County. The core product consists of direct mail publications distributed to residential and commercial addresses, supplemented by digital editions through Issuu, an online events calendar, and email newsletter services via MailChimp. The company also produces custom publications and gift guides for special events and organizations. The publications serve both as community resources for local events and as advertising platforms for local businesses.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Your Town Monthly Regional Publications A network of eight community-focused monthly magazines covering local events, activities, and direct mail advertising for communities across the East Bay and Solano County regions. Editions serve Benicia/Vallejo, Fairfield/Suisun City, Vacaville, Dixon/Winters, Livermore, Pleasanton/Dublin, San Ramon/Danville, and Walnut Creek/Lafayette areas, distributed monthly to residential mailboxes.
• Advertising Services Direct mail and digital advertising solutions for local small and medium businesses, offering display ads in various sizes (full page down to 1/8 page) and business directory listings across eight regional editions, with distribution to residential mailboxes in target zip codes. Rates vary by geographic edition and ad size, with 6-month minimum commitment.
• Custom Publications & Gift Guides

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 44,000 mailboxes reached for San Ramon/Danville edition
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

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.

• S and J AdvertisingcoreOthersParent company S and J Advertising owns and operates the Your Town Monthly publications. The company logo 'S and J Advertising' appears on publication materials and website footer.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• 6AM City: 6AM City builds and operates local morning newsletters in mid-sized U.S. metros, monetized through local advertising. It represents the digital-first, email-driven evolution of the local community publication model YTM runs in print.
• Axios Local: Axios Local operates short, smart local newsletters in select U.S. cities, monetized through local sponsorship and advertising. It is a directly comparable but digital-only evolution of YTM's community-information-and-advertising model.

Broad incumbents

• Patch: Patch operates a national network of hyperlocal digital news sites, often in the same Northern California suburbs YTM serves. It competes for the same local advertiser dollar via digital-only channels and represents the digital-native alternative to YTM's print model.
• Nextdoor: Nextdoor runs a neighborhood-level social platform with significant penetration in Bay Area suburbs and is increasingly monetizing local business advertising. It competes with YTM for the same hyperlocal SMB advertiser budget, though through a social/app channel rather than print.
• Bay Area News Group (Mercury News, East Bay Times): Bay Area News Group operates the dominant legacy newspapers across the same East Bay geography where YTM distributes, including daily print and significant digital reach. It is a broad incumbent with overlapping advertiser base but a much larger, non-hyperlocal footprint.

Direct peers

• Embarcadero Media (Palo Alto Weekly, Mountain View Voice): Embarcadero Media publishes a chain of community newspapers and magazines across the San Francisco Bay Area, including weekly print editions, digital editions and events. It is the most structurally comparable community-publication competitor in Northern California.
• Edible Magazine (various local editions): Edible Communities publishes a network of hyperlocal food and drink magazines across the U.S., using a similar multi-edition local advertising franchise model. It competes for the same local dining and lifestyle advertiser dollars as YTM.
• Sacramento Magazine: Sacramento Magazine is a regional lifestyle magazine publishing monthly issues covering local events, dining and travel, distributed via newsstand and subscriptions. It mirrors YTM's monthly community-magazine format and advertiser mix in a nearby Northern California market.
• East Bay Express / SF Weekly (parent: Euclid Media): East Bay Express is an alternative weekly covering the same East Bay geography as YTM, combining print, digital and event advertising. It targets a similar local reader and SMB advertiser base with overlapping content categories (events, dining, community).
• HOUR Media (Hour Detroit, Pulse): HOUR Media publishes a portfolio of regional city magazines (Hour Detroit, Pulse, others) with multi-edition local advertising and event-driven content. It is a close structural analog to YTM's multi-edition community magazine franchise, though in a different metro.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/yourtown
• Xx.com/yourtownmonthly

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 Your Town Monthly