The Baltimore Times

What The Baltimore Times does

The Baltimore Times is a privately held, non-profit digital news publication founded in 1984 that covers multicultural and African-American community stories in Baltimore, Annapolis, and the broader Maryland region. Its core product is a digital newsroom at baltimoretimes-online.com, built on the QmeSpotlight Digital Newsroom Platform and MMCxchange infrastructure, hosting an archive of more than 4,461 articles across 70+ categories including local news, business, health, sports, entertainment, and education. Supporting offerings include RSS feed syndication, Pageflip-powered e-editions of the Baltimore Times and Annapolis Times print editions, a community events calendar integrated with CitySpark, email newsletters, a paid subscription service, and flagship community programs such as Best of Black Baltimore and AFRAM Festival coverage (including a 50th anniversary documentary).

The publication generates revenue through three streams: display advertising via DoubleClick placements, paid subscriptions for premium content and personalized feeds, and donations through the GiveButter-powered '40 Forward' campaign. Distribution is multi-channel, spanning the website, RSS feeds across 70+ categories, email newsletters, social sharing through AddToAny integration, and a News Collaborators Network that includes Mediashift Newsroom, The Narrative Matters, and MMCxchange for cross-organization content syndication. Customer engagement is reinforced through recurring community events such as AFRAM, ArtScape, and Best of Black Baltimore, positioning the publication as both a news outlet and a community convener for Baltimore-area African-American audiences. The organization operates with 1–10 employees from its headquarters at 301 Light Street, #1445, Baltimore.

Name

The Baltimore Times

Legal name

The Baltimore Times

Website

https://baltimoretimes-online.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1984

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Baltimore Times is a non-profit digital news publication serving Baltimore, Annapolis, and Maryland's African-American community with multicultural local journalism, community events, and cultural coverage since 1984.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Newspaper

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 industry

Investigative & Nonprofit News Organizations (MPAJADAF)

Keywords

• Local news coverage
• Community newspaper
• African american media
• Multicultural journalism
• Digital news platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Baltimore

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, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Digital Advertising: The Baltimore Times generates revenue through display advertising on its website, featuring multiple ad placements including sidebar, header, and in-content advertisements from various sponsors and organizations.
2. Subscription Revenue: Paid subscription model offering premium content access, personalized news feeds, and enhanced community features. Users can subscribe through the platform with various membership tiers.
3. Donations and Fundraising: The Baltimore Times accepts donations through campaigns like '40 Forward' and various community fundraising initiatives to support independent journalism.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Baltimore Times is a weekly news publication and digital news platform that covers positive stories, local news, and community events relevant to the African-American community in Baltimore. Founded in 1984, the company operates a website (baltimoretimes-online.com) that delivers original editorial content alongside curated regional coverage, a digital print e-edition, newsletters, a community events calendar, and an RSS feed syndicated to the MMCxchange/QmeSpotlight network of African-American community newsrooms.

Product overview

The Baltimore Times is a digital news media platform powered by MMCxchange/QmeSpotlight, offering comprehensive coverage of multicultural news, culture, events, and community stories in Baltimore and the broader Maryland region. The core product is the Digital Newsroom at baltimoretimes-online.com, which distributes content across 70+ categories including Local, Business, Health, Sports, Entertainment, Education, and Technology. Supplementary offerings include RSS Feed for content syndication, E-Edition digital flipbooks of print publications via Pageflip, a Community Events Calendar with CitySpark integration, Newsletter email subscriptions, and a Subscription Service for premium personalized access. The platform also organizes flagship campaigns like the Best of Black Baltimore annual business celebration and provides extensive coverage of major events such as the AFRAM Festival (including a 50th anniversary documentary). News Collaborators including Mediashift Newsroom, The Narrative Matters, and MMCxchange contribute to a networked content ecosystem. The platform supports community engagement through user registration via QmeLocal and social sharing via AddToAny.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Baltimore Times Digital Newsroom Primary online news publication at baltimoretimes-online.com delivering original and curated editorial coverage of Baltimore's African-American community, including local news, lifestyle, opinion, sports, and community features.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Mediashift NewsroomcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerNews collaboration partner enabling content syndication and shared newsroom resources. Mediashift Newsroom is a media organization collaborating on news production and distribution through the MMCxchange platform.
• The Narrative MatterscoreGTM or Marketing PartnerNews collaboration partner contributing to multicultural storytelling and community-focused journalism. Content is produced and distributed through The Baltimore Times platform.
• MMCxchangecoreTechnology or IntegrationDigital newsroom infrastructure platform powering The Baltimore Times website, content management, user accounts, and community features. Also facilitates news collaboration network.
• QmeSpotlightcoreTechnology or IntegrationDigital Newsroom Platform providing the technology infrastructure for The Baltimore Times website, enabling content publishing, community engagement, and multimedia distribution.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• The Charlotte Post: African American weekly newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina. Comparable as a heritage Black community newspaper with a mix of print and digital distribution and similar revenue model.
• The Afro-American Newspaper: Historic Black-owned newspaper serving the African American community on the East Coast, with longstanding roots in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. It is the closest direct peer given shared mission, audience, and Black-press heritage.
• The Baltimore Banner: Digital-first nonprofit local news outlet launched in 2022 covering Baltimore with a subscription-supported model. It directly competes for the same regional audience and advertiser pool, and represents the modern digital-native model against which The Baltimore Times must position.
• St. Louis American: Long-running African American-focused weekly newspaper serving St. Louis. Highly comparable in format, audience, community-event strategy, and nonprofit-style operations, providing a strong analog for unit economics.

Regional players

• Washington Informer: Black-owned weekly newspaper covering the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area's African American community. It is comparable by audience and editorial mission, though it serves an adjacent regional market rather than Baltimore specifically.

Broad incumbents

• Capital Gazette: Regional newspaper covering Annapolis and Anne Arundel County in Maryland. Overlaps with The Baltimore Times' Annapolis coverage area and competes for the same regional advertisers and readers.
• The Baltimore Sun: Long-established daily newspaper serving the Baltimore metropolitan area. It is a broad incumbent covering local, regional, and national news across print and digital, directly overlapping with The Baltimore Times' Baltimore geography and general local news beats while operating at substantially greater scale.
• Essence Communications: Major multimedia brand serving the African American community across digital, print, and events. Comparable by audience and cultural focus, though operating nationally at substantially larger scale than The Baltimore Times' regional footprint.

Emerging players

• The Real News Network: Independent nonprofit digital news outlet based in Baltimore covering progressive and community-focused stories. Comparable as a digital-first nonprofit newsroom serving the Baltimore region with a mission-driven bent.

Others

• WYPR (Baltimore Public Radio): Baltimore-based public radio station producing local news and cultural programming. Comparable as a nonprofit local newsroom competing for audience attention and underwriting dollars in the same market, though operating in audio rather than print/digital.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Baltimore_Times
• Facebookfacebook.com/TheBaltimoreTimes
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-baltimore-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 Baltimore Times