Community news site coming to Northfield: AOL’s Patch

Corey Butler Patch

AOL has hired former Northfield News reporter Corey Butler Jr. to be its new editor of Northfield Patch (not yet open). The corporate Patch About page says that it’s "a community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for individual towns and communities."

Patch is also soon launching in Eagan, Edina, Golden Valley, Richfield, and St. Louis Park. I was to meet with Minnesota Patch regional editor Don Wyatt today in Apple Valley but he had to cancel.

MinnPost’s David Brauer has blogged about Patch’s arrival in MN (see his posts: July, Aug, Sept, and Oct). There’s plenty more to read online about Patch, as it’s commonly seen as the most well-funded of the national hyperlocal community news ventures. AOL has deep pockets.

Since Patch goes after local advertising dollars, I see them as a competitor to the Northfield News, KYMN, and the Northfield Entertainment Guide.  Since Patch does community event info and seeks content from citizens, they’re also a competitor to Northfield.org.  Some of their sites have discussion threads on their stories so in that sense, they’re a competitor to Locally Grown.

Competition is good though, right?

9 Comments

  1. Griff Wigley said:

    I’ve been looking for examples of a local Patch site collaborating with its local blogosphere. If you spot any, post a comment here with the URL.

    October 29, 2010
  2. Griff Wigley said:

    I got an email from Janine Iamunno, Sr. Communications Director at Patch’s NYC office who wrote "I was happy to see your piece. We’re looking forward to meeting and working with locals."

    I asked her for examples of local blogosphere partnerships. She wrote:

    Our new Patch [editor] in Brooklyn has been doing a "best of the blogs" feature on his Patch wherein he highlights some of the best stories from local news sites (and links to them with attribution, of course).
    http://prospectheights.patch.com/articles/best-of-the-blogs

    In Westchester (NY) we share breaking news video when we can with News 12, the local cable news outfit.

    Lenn Thompson, who runs an award-winning blog about New York’s wine regions, writes an expert column for North Fork Patch.
    http://www.lenndevours.com/
    http://northfork.patch.com/articles/2010-white-wines-dreamy-harvest-for-local-winemakers

    From Long Island, not exactly a collaboration but an example of cross-coverage: we wrote three stories in Huntington featuring Restaurant Week, which is organized by The Long Islander Newspapers (a weekly in Huntington).  collaborated a little here.

    http://huntington.patch.com/articles/dine-huntington-restaurant-week-just-days-away

    http://huntington.patch.com/articles/gearing-up-for-dine-huntington-restaurant-week

    http://huntington.patch.com/events/dine-huntington-restaurant-week-2

    October 29, 2010
  3. Cynthia Child said:

    This completely fascinates me. I look forward to seeing what shakes out. Thanks for looking in to it Griff with such thoroughness.

    October 29, 2010
  4. Jane McWilliams said:

    Yes, Griff – glad to know about this and to reread David Brauer’s blogs. Just one more example of how dynamic the field of journalism is!

    October 29, 2010

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