BLOX Digital (formerly TownNews.com) is a digital media and online publishing company based in

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in the 2020 census, it is the largest city in Rock Island County and the List of municipalities in Illinois, ninth-most populous in Illinois outside ...

. The company's products include the BLOX

Content Management System A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content ( content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...

, which is commonly used by American newspaper websites. In February 2023, TownNews rebranded as BLOX Digital.

History

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 A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

deal with developing technology. over 1,600 newspapers, magazines,

radio stations Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...

, and TV stations use TownNews.com's products.

Products

The company's lead product is the BLOX CMS (content management system), which is widely used to produce online and print products. Customers include

Lee Enterprises Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 72 daily newspapers in 25 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is b ...

, Berkshire-Hathaway Media,

Digital First Media MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 ass ...

Adams Publishing Group Adams Publishing Group LLC (APG) is a company that provides publishing services, including newspapers, periodicals, and website publishing in the United States. Its corporate headquarters is located in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Mark Adams, son of ...

, Pioneer Newspaper Group, the Evening Post Publishing, and many other groups and independent publications.

Organization

BLOX Digital is headquartered in

. Executives added since 2000 include CEO Brad Ward, head programmer Patrick O'lone, systems chief Chris Murley, controller Darcy Heist, and national sales VP Rick Rogers. Marc Wilson became executive chairman in October 2016 after serving as chief executive since the company's founding.

, the fourth-largest newspaper group in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

is an 82.5% stakeholder of BLOX Digital. The Wilsons remain minority partners. Lee Enterprises became the majority partner in 1996.

Acquisitions

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

References

External links