"I would say the Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow site succeeded in digitizing the community through solid reporting. Many other Patch editors accomplished this as well. However, that didn’t always mean advertisers were eager to support our sites and it didn’t mean that the sites were financially sustainable, given money spent on employees, freelance costs, and the corporate backend. And still there is the local editor’s punishing workload."
What's really scary about this piece is that this is what Gannett hopes to become (albeit on a somewhat larger scale). All these stories about online journalism seem to say the same thing: the business model isn't sustainable.
ReplyDeleteDon't look to Patch to save the day. The model is unsustainable, and it's not that different from traditional media. It just doesn't have a lot of the overhead costs that come with a traditional media company.
ReplyDeleteThe folks at Patch are naive. They figure they can do what traditional operations have done better sans the overhead. They don't (hopefully, they're learning) understand what it takes to run a news operation producing even light-weight content regularly and covering local news.
Constant gardener is a euphemism -- though an overly nice one. It's more like breaking labor laws under the ruse of salaried positions.
AOL is planning layoffs at Patch. Local news is not as easy as it looks.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57396778-93/end-of-the-line-for-aol-instant-messenger/
The New Newsday/News12 digital product is going to change the game in Westchester.
ReplyDeleteThat's a possibility. Cablevision has already pushed the papers in the area out of all high school sports coverage. Seems like they're stacking the deck there.
ReplyDeleteFive years from now, 15 to 45 Deskers will assemble blog items to go along with Gannett video for assorted sites. Buesse then coordinates vids with content driver and photo. I see excitement building already.
ReplyDeleteThe imaginary wall between ad and editorial has crumbled since Sept. 2011, which is apparently when the author left Patch.
ReplyDeleteBusiness owners, take notice. $200 on a tiny rotating ad will get you a glowing editorial feature and regular name-drops until the company folds and your local Patch disappears into the Internet Archive.
I worked at Patch as a "contributor" - in fact, Sean Roach was the first local editor I worked for, and Tarrytown was the first site that hired me - until AOL let go ALL of its freelancers in fall 2011. Sean was right, he had a punishing workload, and the local editors wanted more, more more. Last summer, they began cutting fees, which was absurd considering the work they asked us to do. Gannett will NEVER be like Patch, although many former Gannett editors are now editors at Patch.
ReplyDeletePatch was disorganized when I worked there, never recognizing the need for beat reporters, so I'd cover different meetings in different towns with no regularity. How to get contacts and build credibility that way is beyond me. Also, Patch would pay me for one story and use it on as many sites as it needed to fill copy space.
No wonder no one wanted to advertise.
I also worked for Patch as a freelance writer yet Patch would call me a contributor. What's up with that? The problem of weary editors trying to do it all is that Patch expected them to do it all, and omigosh, delegating meant giving someone more money. I agree with the poster who said there was irregularity in beat reporting, and I still think it's disorganized.
ReplyDeletePatch is a flop. It only offers an online local presence that the newspapers tried and failed to cultivate. Bad management is still bad regardless of the venue. In Westchester, sites like ABetterGreenburgh.blogspot, the YonkersTribune.com and others break stories, offer commentaries and supply what people are looking for. You should look to them for advice and assistance or just close now.
ReplyDeleteI was a local editors for patch in an area I knew very well. I worked my butt off happily often scooping more established news outlets. I launched two sites and it was great until it started to become very top heavy. I was hired in November 2009 and within months had layers of managers who knew nothing about my town but attempted to micromanage like crazy. In addition my manager liked to meet twice a week, usually at a mall 20 miles away from my town when I just really wanted to focus on reporting. I was put on probation for this. The readers were very happy with me but my manager was not. I was eventually fired for alleged misuse of company credit card. This was after working through my separation from my husband and my daughters hospitalization. They were pretty heartless after I had been so dedicated. Yes i was getting paid. Oh well! C'est la vie.
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