Times of San Diego Brand Score: 88/100 - Strong Brand tier

Local News and Opinion for San Diego

Times of San Diego (timesofsandiego.com) scores 88 out of 100 on Brand Analyzer, placing it in the Strong Brand tier among Media & Entertainment brands, Non-profit brands, in the 91st percentile of 12293 Media & Entertainment brands.

AI Snapshot

Times of San Diego is a nonprofit, independent online news organization founded in 2014 that provides comprehensive local news coverage for San Diego County, California, the fifth most-populous county in the U.S. The outlet focuses on community-oriented journalism, including news, events, and opinion pieces, positioning itself as a trusted, bias-free alternative to corporate media for area residents and stakeholders.

Key facts about Times of San Diego
Brand NameTimes of San Diego
Domaintimesofsandiego.com
IndustryMedia & Entertainment, Non-profit
Founded2014
HeadquartersSan Diego, California
Main CompetitorsSan Diego Union-Tribune (85/100), Voice of San Diego (86/100), KPBS (87/100), NBC 7 San Diego (82/100), San Diego Reader (77/100)

Evidence

Moz Domain Authority 78/100 vs category average 54 / leader 100 - a strong backlink profile, so AI systems frequently encounter mentions of the brand.

Ranked #44,730 on the Tranco list of most-visited sites - strong traffic reinforces the brand's prominence to AI models.

Times of San Diego has a dedicated Wikipedia entity - a top-weighted signal AI models rely on to identify and describe the brand.

The homepage meta description reads "Times of San Diego is a nonprofit news site devoted to comprehensive news coverage in San Diego County, California, the fifth most-populous county in the U.S." (Meta description: 26 words (ideal length). OG description present and descriptive) - this is the summary AI engines are most likely to quote.

Structured data on the homepage: 1 JSON-LD block(s), Organization schema, Breadcrumb/Website schema, og:title, og:description, og:image, og:type, Twitter cards, canonical. Adding FAQ schema would further help AI crawlers parse the brand's identity.

AI-crawler access: robots.txt mentions ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot - all allowed - robots.txt controls whether engines like GPTBot and ClaudeBot can read the site at all.

Detected tech stack: Nginx, WordPress, Ghost.

Social footprint: verified profiles on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X (Twitter), LinkedIn; no detected presence on GitHub - consistent profiles reinforce the brand's identity across the web.

0 Reddit mentions - community discussion signals real-world reputation to AI models.

Does AI know Times of San Diego?

Live results from asking a general-purpose AI assistant about the brand, checked September 2026.

When asked "What is Times of San Diego?", Claude could identify the brand as of September 2026. Times of San Diego is a local online news publication covering breaking news, politics, business, and community events in the San Diego, California area. It was founded in 2014 and operates as a digital-only news outlet, distributing content through its website and syndication pa Best known for Local digital news coverage of San Diego, California.

When asked "Best brands similar to Times of San Diego?", Claude would recommend Times of San Diego as of September 2026. It's a legitimate, established local news source for San Diego, so it would be relevant if someone asked about regional online news outlets.

People Also Ask About Times of San Diego

Common questions people ask in Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI search engines.

Who are Times of San Diego's main competitors?

Times of San Diego's main competitors in Media & Entertainment: San Diego Union-Tribune (85/100), Voice of San Diego (86/100), KPBS (87/100), NBC 7 San Diego (82/100), San Diego Reader (77/100).

Sources: Brand Analyzer scan

What is Times of San Diego?

Times of San Diego is an independent, nonprofit online news organization founded in 2014 that covers San Diego County, California, the fifth most-populous county in the United States.

Sources: Times of San Diego official site

When was Times of San Diego founded?

Times of San Diego was founded in 2014. Times of San Diego operates in the Media & Entertainment category. It is analyzed by Brand Analyzer across seven brand dimensions and AI-search visibility.

Sources: Wikidata

Does ChatGPT recommend Times of San Diego?

Times of San Diego scores 58/100 on Brand Analyzer's AI recommendation signal, indicating it is reasonably likely to be surfaced when AI assistants like ChatGPT suggest Media & Entertainment options. Recommendation depends on crawlability, structured data, and category authority; a Wikipedia presence helps.

Sources: Times of San Diego official site

How can Times of San Diego improve its AI discoverability?

Times of San Diego can improve AI discoverability by strengthening structured data (Organization and FAQ schema), maintaining an accurate Wikipedia/Wikidata entity, earning authoritative citations, and keeping content crawlable for AI bots. Brand Analyzer measures these as visibility, trust, and recommendation signals.

Sources: Times of San Diego official site

What products or services does Times of San Diego offer?

Times of San Diego offers local news reporting, community event coverage, and opinion content focused on San Diego County, California.

Sources: Times of San Diego official site

What is Times of San Diego known for?

Times of San Diego is known for its comprehensive, nonprofit local news coverage of San Diego County, positioning itself as an independent alternative to traditional corporate media outlets in the region.

Sources: Times of San Diego official site

Who uses Times of San Diego?

Times of San Diego is used by residents, community members, and local stakeholders in San Diego County who are seeking reliable local news, event information, and opinion coverage.

Sources: Times of San Diego official site

Recommendations

AI visibility

Times of San Diego scores 61/100 for AI visibility - how well ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can discover, identify and cite the brand.

Times of San Diego has a moderate AI-visibility profile at 61/100 - a proxy for how readily ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews can recognise and cite it. Its strongest area is visibility (65/100) and its weakest is trust (56/100). It benefits from a recognised Wikipedia company entity, a Wikidata knowledge-graph entry and a global traffic rank of #44,730 (Tranco). The main gaps holding it back: no llms.txt to steer AI to its best pages. In a live check, Claude could already identify Times of San Diego from memory (September 2026) - a sign these signals are paying off.

Visibility - 65/100

Trust - 56/100

Recommendation likelihood - 58/100

Score breakdown - 7 dimensions

The score combines seven dimensions - name quality, digital presence, visual identity, messaging clarity, trust foundation, AI discoverability, and brand authority - into a single objective benchmark.

Peer brands

Ranked closest to Times of San Diego: THX (88/100), The Tyee (88/100), Tom's Guide (88/100), Toronto Sun (88/100).

A step up - brands to learn from: Yr (91/100), Yamaha Corporation (91/100).

Category leader: Complex (97/100).

Brand Analyzer is built by DataEase AI. Track your brand in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.

Add this brand score badge to your site