TownNews

The company was founded by Marc Wilson, Virginia R. Wilson, and Robert P. Dalton as the International Newspaper Network (INN) in 1989 to help newspapers deal with developing technology.[1] The three were owners of the weekly Bigfork Eagle in Bigfork, Montana.[1] Bob Keenan and Mike Brown joined the company in the early 1990s. With the increasing popularity of the web in the mid-1990s, efforts focused on helping newspapers bring their content to the Internet. As of 2017, over 1,600 newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and TV stations use TownNews.com's products.[1]

The company's lead product is the BLOX Content Management System (CMS), which is widely used to produce online and print products.[1] In 2015, Barrett Golding at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri examined 1,506 U.S. newspaper websites and found BLOX CMS was the most common content management system among the 692 sites with a CMS that could be detected by BuiltWith, W3Techs, or Wappalyzer.[3] Customers include Lee Enterprises,[4] Berkshire-Hathaway Media,[5] Digital First Media,[6] Adams Publishing Group,[7] Pioneer Newspaper Group,[8] the Evening Post Publishing,[9] and many other groups and independent publications.

TownNews.com is headquartered in Moline, Illinois.[1] Executives added since 2000 include CEO Brad Ward, head programmer Patrick O'lone, systems chief Chris Murley, controller Darcy Heist,[10] and national sales VP Rick Rogers.[11] Many of its 98 employees work remotely. Marc Wilson became executive chairman in October 2016 after serving as chief executive since the company's founding.[2]

Lee Enterprises, the fourth-largest newspaper group in the United States is an 82.5% stakeholder of TownNews.com. The Wilsons and Keenan remain minority partners.[2] Lee Enterprises became the majority partner in 1996.[1]

Over the years, TownNews.com has acquired various organizations, most notably ZWire, AdQuest,[12] Anytime News,[13] and DotConnect Media.

• Cxense

• Official website
• BLOX Help Center