The nature of community journalism is about to change dramatically.
The recent launch of AOL Inc.’s Patch.com in Rhode Island and eight other states is expected to increase already-intense competition for local news and add the Internet as a major player in a field long dominated nationally by newspapers and television.
Bolstered with a $50 million investment by AOL, Patch initiated its presence in Rhode Island the first week of August, when three Patch.com websites went online – one each serving Middletown, Newport and Portsmouth – with more to come both in the Ocean State and elsewhere across the country. In Massachusetts, Patch.com sites are in 13 communities to date.
Patch intends to be the largest hirer of full-time journalists in the United States this year, the company said in a news release, expecting to hire more than 500 journalists by the end of the year. In Rhode Island, Patch has hired at least four local editors and last week was looking to fill 12 more positions from Westerly to Woonsocket.
On Aug. 17, Patch celebrated the opening of its 100th website, in Morristown, N.J. With the exception of California and Illinois, most Patch websites are in the Northeast.
A new concept in community journalism, Patch aims to provide hyper-local news for each town and city it serves, encouraging local feedback and reader contributions far more than most other news outlets.
Reader comments are allowed on home pages that function as front pages. Reader contributions are also allowed on local businesses, upcoming events and life milestones such as births and weddings. A map of each community shows the location of each event or incident covered that day.
Patch makes extensive use of Twitter and Facebook to open a dialogue with its readers and, editors say, can post breaking news within seconds of its occurrence. There is no charge to view the sites or provide news to Patch.com.
Local news stories posted Aug. 2 on the Portsmouth Patch included an update on residential real estate sales at the Carnegie Abbey Club, a preview of the Pop Warner football teams’ season and routine police news, such as the rescue of a Barrington man who fell from a bridge, along with bylined columns on local produce and on parenting. Upcoming events include a bridge-club meeting and a Spanish class for young people at a local church.
“The pay is extremely good,” she said. Patch salaries, Levin said, range from $35,000 to $40,000 for local editors and approximately $70,000 for regional editors; Scott Pickering, Rhode Island regional editor for Patch, said those salaries are “in the ball park,” but declined to provide exact figures. Benefits include health insurance.
Revenue is raised through the sale of ads and circulation is measured through the number of visits each website records.
Patch runs counter to current trends because, according to a September 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 64 percent of the 1,506 adults surveyed obtain local news from television stations, 41 percent from newspapers and only 17 percent on the Internet. The age groups most likely to turn to the Internet for local news, at 45 percent of those surveyed, are 18-to-49-year olds.
Patch has almost no overhead. With no office, no printing press, no distribution system, no ink and no paper, “the savings are enormous,” Pickering said. Local editors, whom Pickering called “the heart and soul of what we’re doing,” are hired as full-time employees for each town and work without offices.
Pickering said local editors are encouraged to station themselves in coffee shops or on park benches, armed with the equipment they need to gather news and update their websites, including laptop, wireless card, cell phone, video camera and still camera. They are expected to work 40 hours per week, but there are no set work hours. Pickering said his role and that of other regional editors is to troubleshoot and coach local editors.
Local editors must recruit local contributors, some of whom work for free, Pickering said, and others are reimbursed at what he called “fair market” freelance rates. Local editors also are asked to recruit their own replacements for weekends, vacations or sick leave, and to pay them from freelance budgets.
Pickering, president of the Rhode Island Press Association and former managing editor for East Bay Newspapers based in Bristol, hopes that people will not let the corporate image of AOL overshadow an exciting experiment in local journalism.
“There is an energy inside this organization that is the complete opposite of the image of a big corporation,” he said. “The people operating Patch are running it as if it is a small startup operation. It’s a fresh, energetic place to work. We’re young, we’re growing and we’re trailblazing.”
The challenge for Patch, Levin said, is to let people know about it. “I’m not sure how they’re going to promote it, but the trick for Patch is getting the word out there and getting people to read it,” she said. “I don’t think you can just have a website and assume people will find you.”
She doubted that anyone is ready to drop a local newspaper subscription in favor of Patch, suggesting instead that competition will enhance other local media outlets. A downside to the Patch experiment is that local editors and contributors will never know the “camaraderie” that can flourish in newsrooms, she said.
William F. Lucey III, publisher of the Newport Daily News, a direct competitor to the three Patch sites on Aquidneck Island, declined comment.
Headquartered in New York City, with a regional office in Boston, Patch began in December of 2007 as a small, local startup company and was purchased by AOL Inc. in June of 2009. Published reports of the purchase price at the time ranged from $5 million to $10 million. Pickering confirmed that AOL has invested $50 million in Patch. Warren Webster is president of Patch and Jon Brodd is CEO. Editor-in-chief is Brian Farnham. Regional publisher is Patrick J. Purcell Jr., son of Boston Herald owner and publisher Patrick J. Purcell. •
