Here in Newton, most folks would agree that Newton Patch lost a lot of its vibrancy when reporter Melanie Graham left. Now the New York Times reports the national network of local news sites may be “finally winding down.”
Patch.com’s future in doubt
by Greg Reibman | Dec 15, 2013 | Newton | 7 comments
I think the Newton Patch website lost a lot of its vibrancy when they did the website redesign.
I also remembered early in the year when the Newton Patch reached its 1,000th Facebook Fans. Seven months later, it only has 1,115 Facebook Fans.
I feel that Melanie did a lot of reporting on Newton News. Now, I don’t feel that there are news stories, and often the same stories are posted on all the patch sites.
Newton Patch hasn’t been the same since Melanie left. She was replaced by Brooklyn who just disappeared one day. Her replacement seems to have the responsibility of posting a lot of content on the site, but it doesn’t have to be news. Probably he’s in charge of more sites that any one person can reasonably handle.
It’s too bad.
BTW, AOL execs say declarations of Patch’s demise are premature, but others aren’t buying it.
When Melanie was at Patch, the Newton news reporting rivaled (and often surpassed) the TAB. No reason to go there anymore.
Tricia,
You said it best! There were days that I went to the PATCH to find out about a school committee meeting or an alderman meeting. Now, I barely go to the patch. The news is very general, almost general and nothing to do with Newton. There is the who’s hiring, and other very general stuff.
The editor is based in Watertown, and never made a statement about taking over the Newton Patch site. I am almost ready to remove it from my book marks!
It is sad to see it go from super local to super general.
AOL just announced that it will sell a controlling interest in Patch to Hale Global, a special situations technology investment firm.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. That probably means AOL got little or zero money from Hale Global for Patch. At least AOL will retain a minority equity interest in the new Patch LLC.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/aol-just-disposed-of-controlling-interest-in-patch-2014-1#ixzz2qWDeqKQR