The Hartwell Sun

What The Hartwell Sun does

The Hartwell Sun is a weekly local newspaper founded in 1876 that serves Hartwell and Hart County, Georgia, operating as part of the Community Newspapers, Inc. (CNI) network of regional publications headquartered in Athens, Georgia. The publication delivers comprehensive local coverage including government, schools, sports, obituaries, classifieds, and community events through print home delivery, a digital subscription website, an e-paper edition hosted on etype.services, and a video content platform. Its core product is a unified print/digital newspaper subscription, supplemented by three specialty magazines — Lake Living (lifestyle), Mountain Traveler (regional travel), and Hello Hart (community) — plus obituary services via Legacy.com, classified advertising via classadz.vdata.com, and historical archive search via NewsBank.

The business model is a hybrid of subscription recurring revenue (home delivery and digital access), unit-priced single-issue sales at $1.50 per copy, display and classified advertising sold to local businesses, and ancillary magazine subscriptions. Go-to-market is community-anchored: marketing runs through Facebook, email newsletters, video content, and partnerships with local organizations including the Hart County Chamber of Commerce. Pricing is not publicly disclosed beyond the 'starting at just a few dollars a month' subscription framing and the $1.50 single-copy price point. The customer base is geographically concentrated in Hart County with secondary reach into surrounding Northeast Georgia communities, serving individual subscribers, local sports families, small businesses, and government/educational institutions. The company employs 11–50 staff, with named leadership including Rose Scoggins (Editor and Publisher), Benjamin London (Sports Editor and Staff Writer), and bureau-level state coverage via Ty Tagami.

Name

The Hartwell Sun

Legal name

The Hartwell Sun

Website

https://thehartwellsun.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1876

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Hartwell Sun is a weekly local newspaper founded in 1876 serving Hartwell and Hart County, Georgia, part of the Community Newspapers, Inc. network. It delivers local news, sports, obituaries, and community coverage via print, digital, e-paper, and specialty magazines.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Hartwell

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Subscription Revenue: Home delivery and digital subscriptions providing recurring revenue from print and online access. Subscriptions include full access to all stories, archives, and exclusive features.
2. Single Issue Sales: Individual newspaper copies sold at $1.50 per issue for non-subscribers
3. Advertising: Display and classified advertising space sold to local businesses and community members, including 'Place a classified' service
4. Magazine Publications: Specialty magazine publications including Lake Living and Mountain Traveler, sold as single issues or subscriptions

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Hartwell Sun is a community newspaper that reports on local news, government, schools, sports, obituaries, and events in Hartwell and Hart County, Georgia. It distributes a printed weekly edition alongside an e-paper and online news site, and sells print/digital subscriptions and advertising space to local readers and businesses.

Product overview

The Hartwell Sun is a local community newspaper serving Hartwell, Georgia, and Hart County. The company operates as a traditional print and digital news organization, offering a single unified product line centered on local journalism. Its core offering consists of the print and digital newspaper subscription, complemented by e-paper digital editions, regional lifestyle magazines (Lake Living, Mountain Traveler, Hello Hart), video content, obituary services, classified advertising, and searchable digital archives. The Hartwell Sun is owned by Community Newspapers, Inc. and partners with third-party platforms for content delivery and specialized services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Lake Living: Magazine featuring lake lifestyle content
• Mountain Traveler
• Hello Hart

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Nestlé-PurinaminorOthers · 18 November 2019Pet food production facility that officially began production in Hartwell on November 18, 2019. The Hartwell Sun covered the ribbon-cutting ceremony but Nestlé-Purina is not a formal business partnership.
• Community Newspapers, Inc (CNI)coreOthersParent company and home office based in Athens, Georgia that publishes multiple regional newspapers across Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida including The Clayton Tribune, Dahlonega Nugget, Northeast Georgian, and 15+ other community newspapers. The Hartwell Sun operates as part of the CNI network.
• Legacy.comcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership for obituary distribution and online memorial services. Legacy.com hosts Hartwell Sun obituaries providing extended reach for funeral notices and memorial content beyond the print edition.
• etype.servicescoreTechnology or IntegrationDigital platform provider for e-paper/e-edition services, hosting digital versions of The Hartwell Sun and affiliated CNI magazines including Lake Living and Mountain Traveler.
• Georgia Mountains Regional Commission (GMRC)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRegional planning organization that partnered with Hart County and Town of Bowersville for comprehensive planning meetings. The Hartwell Sun covered these community planning initiatives.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Athens Banner-Herald: A larger regional daily newspaper in Athens, Georgia — the home base of CNI. While serving a broader Northeast Georgia audience than Hartwell Sun, it overlaps in coverage territory and competes for regional advertising dollars and digital subscriptions in adjacent counties.
• Gannett Co., Inc. The largest U.S. newspaper publisher (USA Today Network), operating hundreds of community newspapers nationwide. Comparable as a multi-title community newspaper operator with shared digital infrastructure, subscription paywalls, and advertising networks, but at vastly greater scale than Hartwell Sun.
• The Augusta Chronicle: A long-established regional daily newspaper in Augusta, Georgia. Comparable as a Georgia-based community-rooted newsbrand with print + digital subscription model, classified advertising, and obituary services, but at significantly larger scale than Hartwell Sun.
• Lee Enterprises: A major U.S. newspaper publisher operating daily and weekly community newspapers across the Midwest, South, and Northeast. Comparable as a community-newspaper chain operator reliant on subscriptions, advertising, and digital transition strategies relevant to small-market titles like Hartwell Sun.
• Tribune Publishing: A U.S. newspaper publisher (Chicago Tribune, NY Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, and regional dailies). Comparable as a multi-title legacy newspaper operator navigating print-to-digital transition with subscription and advertising revenue models similar to those of Hartwell Sun.
• Savannah Morning News: A regional daily newspaper serving Savannah and coastal Georgia. Comparable business model (print + digital subscriptions, advertising, magazines) and community-news orientation, but operating in a larger metropolitan market than Hartwell Sun.

Direct peers

• The Clayton Tribune: A weekly community newspaper in northeast Georgia that is part of the same Community Newspapers, Inc. (CNI) network as The Hartwell Sun. It is the most direct comparable: same parent company, same weekly print + digital model, similar small-town local coverage focus.
• Dahlonega Nugget: A weekly community newspaper in Dahlonega, Georgia, also published under the CNI network. Directly comparable to Hartwell Sun in format, ownership, revenue model (subscriptions + advertising), and hyper-local coverage of government, sports, and community events.
• Northeast Georgian: A CNI-affiliated community newspaper serving northeast Georgia with print and digital editions. Comparable as a same-network weekly newspaper with overlapping geographic audience and similar product mix.

Emerging players

• Patch.com: A digital-only hyperlocal news network covering thousands of U.S. communities. Comparable in targeting the same hyper-local news gap Hartwell Sun addresses, but competes digitally rather than in print; represents the alternative digital-first model for community news consumption.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/thehartwellsun
• Xx.com/thehartwellsun
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hartwell-sun

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 Hartwell Sun