Town Planner

What Town Planner does

Town Planner is a multi-channel community calendar platform founded in 1986 by Larry Paulozzi in Cleveland, Ohio and headquartered in Richfield, Ohio. The company distributes free printed wall calendars to over 4,000,000 households across 600+ communities in more than 15 US states each December via US mail, and operates a website, the TODAY mobile app for iOS and Android, and a weekly Thursday email newsletter delivering a 10-day outlook of community events and local deals. The platform's core technology combines a location-based web directory with mobile calendar integration and a print fulfillment pipeline routed through independent local publisher franchisees who manage community-specific content, advertising sales, and event approval.

The business is operated as a franchise model: independent local publishers control advertising sales, calendar distribution, and editorial curation within their territories, while corporate in Richfield owns the brand, technology stack, and franchise program. Revenue is generated primarily through advertising sold to local small businesses — display ads, coupons, business directory listings, and newsletter sponsorships packaged across print, website, mobile app, and newsletter channels on an annual basis — with a secondary stream from franchise fees. Community non-profits and individuals post events at no charge under a freemium model. Customer concentration is highly fragmented across thousands of local SMB advertisers, and consumer demand-side usage is reinforced by independent VeraFast survey data showing 70%+ of recipients retain the calendar year-round. The company is privately held with no disclosed funding rounds, M&A activity, or external institutional ownership, and operates with 101-250 employees.

Name

Town Planner

Legal name

Town Planner

Website

https://townplanner.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1986

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Town Planner is a 40-year-old, franchise-based multi-channel community calendar platform distributing free printed wall calendars to over 4 million US households across 600+ communities, monetizing via local small business advertising across print, website, mobile app, and weekly newsletter.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Local Community Advertising Media

NAICS

Newspaper Publishers (513110), Periodical Publishers (513120)

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 industry

Local & City Guide Content Aggregators (MPACAKAJ)

Keywords

• Community calendar publishing
• Local advertising media
• Franchise publishing network
• Event discovery platform
• Print and digital advertising

Headquarters

HQ city

Richfield

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Advertising - Calendar: Local businesses purchase ad space in printed wall calendars and digital placements. The calendar serves as a year-round advertising medium visible in homes 365 days per year.
2. Display and Coupon Advertising - Website: Businesses purchase display ads and coupon space on TownPlanner.com website, with full editing capabilities for sponsors.
3. Business Directory Listings: Local businesses create profiles and listings in the Town Planner business directory as part of advertising packages.
4. Newsletter Ad Space: Sponsors can purchase ad space in the weekly newsletter with highlighted coupons for additional visibility.
5. Franchise Fees: Town Planner sells franchise opportunities to individuals who become local publishers managing communities. The franchise includes startup training and ongoing support.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Town Planner publishes and distributes free community wall calendars to households through a network of local franchise publishers, while operating a complementary digital platform (website, mobile app called TODAY, and weekly email newsletter) that aggregates local events and serves as an advertising channel for local businesses. Revenue is generated primarily through advertising sales to local businesses across print, web, app, and email channels, supplemented by franchise fees paid by local operators.

Product overview

Town Planner is a community calendar platform combining print and digital tools. The core offering includes the Town Planner Calendar (printed wall calendar distributed to over 4,000,000 households), the Town Planner Website (townplanner.com for event posting and discovery), the TODAY mobile app (for iOS and Android), and the Weekly Newsletter (delivered via email). The platform enables local businesses to advertise through display ads, coupons, and business directory listings across all these channels. Town Planner operates as a franchise model, with local publishers covering approximately 600 towns across the United States.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Print Wall Calendar Free annual community wall calendar mailed to approximately 4 million households across 600+ communities, featuring local events, business listings, and paid advertising from local businesses.
• Community Calendar Website Online community event calendar and business directory searchable by zip code, attracting 50,000+ monthly visitors for local event discovery and local business search.
• TODAY Mobile App Mobile application providing on-the-go access to community events, local business information, and digital coupons and deals from advertisers.
• Weekly Email Newsletter Weekly email newsletter delivering local events and advertiser messaging to opted-in subscribers in Town Planner communities.
• Town Planner Franchise Program Franchise opportunity allowing local operators to publish and distribute community calendars in their territories using the Town Planner brand, technology platform, and operating system.

Quantifiable outcome

• 70%+ of homeowners keep and use the Town Planner calendar throughout the year
• +4 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Patch.com: Patch operates hyper-local news and events websites for communities across the US, monetized through local advertising. Most direct digital analog to Town Planner, sharing local-event aggregation and community-focused content monetization.
• Money Mailer: Money Mailer is a franchise-driven direct-mail advertising and coupon platform serving local SMBs with household-targeted ad mailings. Closely comparable in franchise economics, SMB advertising focus, and direct-mail model to Town Planner's calendar advertising.
• Dex Media: Dex Media sells print and digital marketing solutions (yellow pages, search, websites) to local SMBs. It competes for the same local advertiser wallet with a multi-channel local marketing stack, although focused on directories rather than community events.
• ReachLocal: ReachLocal (now part of USA TODAY Network / Gannett) provides digital marketing services and software to local SMBs. Comparable in targeting the local advertiser with multi-channel (search, social, display) marketing solutions.
• Valpak: Valpak is the most direct peer: a franchise-based direct-mail advertising business that mails coupon envelopes to local households and sells ad space to SMBs. It shares Town Planner's franchise model, household-direct distribution, SMB advertising revenue mix, and free-recipient strategy.
• Hibu (formerly Yellowbook): Hibu provides integrated marketing (print directories, digital ads, websites) to local SMBs. Comparable in serving the same small-business advertiser with multi-channel local advertising, although it operates through corporate reps rather than a franchise model.

Others

• Constant Contact: Constant Contact provides email marketing and SMB digital marketing tools — adjacent to Town Planner's newsletter-driven engagement and SMB advertiser base. Comparable as a marketing-tech enabler for the same local-business customer rather than a direct competitor for community-calendar inventory.

Broad incumbents

• Nextdoor: Nextdoor is a neighborhood-focused social platform surfacing local events, businesses, and recommendations to residents. It competes for the same consumer attention and local-event mindshare but operates as a single, venture-backed platform rather than a franchise ad business.
• Eventbrite: Eventbrite is a leading self-serve event ticketing and discovery platform often used by the same community organizations that post on Town Planner. It overlaps in community-event publishing and competes for user engagement in local discovery.
• Gannett (USA TODAY Network): Gannett publishes hundreds of local community newspapers and USA TODAY, monetizing through subscriptions and local advertising. Comparable in recurring local-news publication and household-direct distribution, although at much larger scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/town-planner

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

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 Town Planner