Patch (website)

Patch is an American local news and information platform, primarily owned by Hale Global.[2] As of June 2019, Patch operated some 1,227 hyperlocal news and information websites in 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.[3][4][5][6]

Patch
Type of site
News
Headquarters
New York City, New York
,
United States
Area servedUnited States
OwnerHale Global
ServicesOnline news and opinion
URLpatch.com
Alexa rank 267 (April 2020)[1]
LaunchedDecember 2007 (2007-12)
Current statusActive

Patch Media Corporation is the operator of the service.[7]

History

Patch was founded by Tim Armstrong, Warren Webster and Jon Brod in 2007 after Armstrong said he found a dearth of online information on his home-neighborhood of Riverside, Connecticut.[8] The company was acquired by AOL in 2009 shortly after Armstrong became AOL's CEO. Armstrong told AOL staffers that he recused himself from negotiations to acquire the company and did not directly profit from his seed investment.[9][10]

The acquisition occurred on June 11, 2009.[11][12] AOL paid an estimated $7 million in cash for the news platform as part of its effort to reinvent itself as a content provider beyond its legacy dial-up Internet business. AOL, which split from Time Warner in late 2009, announced in 2010 it would be investing $50 million or more into the startup of the Patch.com network.[13] As part of the acquisition Brod became President of AOL Ventures, Local & Mapping, and Warren Webster became president of Patch.[14]

On August 9, 2013, AOL announced it would be laying off staff at all levels.[15] On an all-staff conference call, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced that the number of staffed Patch sites would be reduced from 900 to 600.[16] Creative Director Abel Lenz was also publicly fired by Tim Armstrong at that time.[17]

On January 15, 2014, AOL spun off Patch and sold majority ownership to Hale Global.[2] With the sale's closure, AOL laid off several hundred more staffers before turning control of Patch over to Hale.[18] In May 2014, the company announced the first profitable quarter in its history.[19] In 2014, Warren St. John became CEO and Executive Editor of Patch.

Prior to its 2014 sale, Patch Media came under scrutiny from individuals and the media. Articles in the Los Angeles Times,[20] Business Insider,[21][22] Forbes[23] and online bloggers[24][25][26] pointed out apparent flaws in its previous business model. According to several sources that were published from 2010 to 2012, some of which quoted former employees, working conditions within the organization deteriorated and the company entered a period of consolidation.[27][28][29] The sites also faced increased competition from independent blogs.[30] Nonetheless, Tim Armstrong told the Columbia Journalism Review in March 2012 that he still believed in the company.[31] When Editor-in-Chief Brian Farnham resigned in April 2012, Farnham said: "I've never worked for a company that has been as scrutinized, criticized, and coal-raked as this one ... You’d think we were creating toxic waste, instead of, you know, free useful information."[32]

In February 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that Patch had 23 million users, was profitable and expanding into new territories.[33] In 2018, Patch completed is third profitable year in a row, attracting an average of 23.5 million unique visitors monthly. Patch employs nearly 150 people, including 110 full-time reporters, many from the nation's leading newsrooms.[34]

Alison Bernstein was named CEO [35] in September 2019. Charles Hale informed Recode in 2019 that his network of 1,200-plus hyperlocal sites was generating more than $20 million in annual ad revenue, without a paywall.[36]

Operations

Patch sites contain news and human interest stories reported locally. Each site contains a mixture of local and national advertising. The latter includes a self-serve ad platform allowing users to communicate directly with targeted audiences.[37][38]

References
  1. "Patch.com site info". Alexa.com. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  2. Kaufman, Leslie (January 15, 2014). "AOL Finds a Partner to Run Its Troubled Patch Division". New York Times.
  3. Keith, Tamara (17 August 2010). "AOL Aims High With Hyperlocal Journalism Project". NPR.com. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  4. Hardy, Quentin (17 August 2010). "AOL's plan to own your neighborhood". Forbes.com. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  5. Chandler, Michele (9 December 2010). "Local News Becomes Web's New Boom". NetNewsCheck. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  6. "All Patch Locations by State | Patch". USA Patch. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  7. "Our Terms of Use". Patch.com. Retrieved September 3, 2012.
  8. Cain Miller, Claire; Stone, Brad (April 12, 2009). ""Hyperlocal" web sites deliver news without newspapers". The New York Times.
  9. Schonfeld, Erick (June 11, 2009). "AOL Buys Local Startups Going And Patch (And CEO Tim Armstrong Brings an Investment In-House)". TechCrunch.
  10. "About Us". Patch. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  11. Savarese, Chris (June 11, 2009). "AOL Acquires Two Local Services, Patch and Going". AOL.com. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
  12. McCarthy, Caroline (June 11, 2009). "AOL thinks local, acquires Patch and Going". CNET.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2009. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
  13. "AOL's Patch plans 500 local sites by end of 2010". Associated Press. August 16, 2010.
  14. "Jon Brod". AOL.com. May 12, 2010. Archived from the original on June 1, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
  15. "AOL To 'Impact' Hundreds Of Patch Employees Friday In A Bid For Hyper Local Profits". Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  16. Nicholas Carlson, provided by (2013-08-09). "AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Fired Patch's Creative Director In Front Of 1,000 Coworkers (AOL)". SFGate. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  17. "Opinion: AOL boss blew it in public firing". CNN.com. 13 August 2013. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
  18. Burns, Matt. "Patch Hit With Sweeping Layoffs As New Owner Hale Global Restructures". TechCrunch. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  19. Kaufman, Leslie (May 18, 2014). "Patch Sites Turn Corner After Sale and Big Cuts". The New York Times. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  20. Rainey, James (24 April 2010). "On the Media: Trying to Patch into the hyper-local news market: The AOL franchise comes to Manhattan Beach. Can it succeed?". Los Angeles Times.
  21. Carlson, Nicholas (23 September 2011). "'A Bridge Too Far': AOL Requires Patch Editors To Drum Up Ad Sales Leads". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 1 July 2012.
  22. Carlson, Nicholas (23 February 2012). "Leaked Documents Reveal Exactly How Much Ads Cost On Patch". Business Insider.
  23. Bercovici, Jeff (6 October 2011). "Is AOL Trimming Its Patch? Year-End Goal Now In Doubt". Forbes. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  24. Gaffin, Adam (16 April 2010). "Thank God Needham is a three-site town". Universal Hub.
  25. Safran, Steve (May 21, 2010). "Is the Patch revenue model sustainable?". Lost Remote. Archived from the original on April 20, 2012.
  26. Hirschman, David (19 April 2011). "Baristanet's Debra Galant: How Patch Is Like Wal-Mart (interview)". Street Fight: Inside the Business of Hyperlocal.
  27. Kennedy, Dan (August 5, 2010). "Hard times working the Patch". Media Nation.
  28. Del Rey, Jason (9 December 2011). "AOL's Patch Gets a Little Less Hyper-Local: Consolidates Sites in New Jersey, California". Ad Age.
  29. Roach, Sean (March–April 2012). "The Constant Gardener: My two years tending AOL's hyperlocal experiment". Columbia Journalism Review.
  30. Kennedy, Dan (May 13, 2011). "Indies fight back against Patch". Media Nation.
  31. "Tim Armstrong Still Believes: The AOL CEO tells why he's still betting on Patch". Columbia Journalism Review. March–April 2012.
  32. Faircloth, Kelly (April 12, 2012). "AOL's Patch Editor-In-Chief Leaves, Does Not Go Scorched Earth". Shakeups. Betabeat. Archived from the original on April 15, 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  33. Marshall, Jack (2016-02-02). "Patch Rebounds After Split From AOL". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
  34. "'Patch' Celebrates Profitability, Explores AI". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  35. "An Update From Patch". Across America, US Patch. 2019-09-16. Retrieved 2019-10-29.
  36. Kafka, Peter (2019-02-11). "The alternative to your dying local paper is written by one person, a robot, and you". Vox. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
  37. Moses, Lucia (2018-10-16). "How profitable Patch is automating ad buying". Digiday. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  38. "How 'hyperlocal' news app Patch is trying to regain trust in media". The Daily Dot. 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
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