Problems at Patch.com

There are more patch and bleacher report lurkers than I thought? Oh goodie.

Might be just me, but it's taken two posts to give off the first impression that you're not a read-and-chuckle type of person who finally decided to break through on this niche topic.

Do we need to regurgitate the stuff from the poster who ranted on about patch for five posts and has never been heard from since? A luchadore with a new mask?

That being said, I'd never wish for journalists to lose their jobs en masse, which is apparently happening at FanHouse and looks possible at patch. However, when newbies sign up and immediately rant -- not just here, but other message boards/forums as well -- they're not usually the "read and chuckle" posters you are trying to portray.

You mean to tell us that six pages into a post on a topic (patch) that many hope will work (but expect to fail because of leadership and business model) is what prompted you to break your silence?

 

I had an interview for a Patch job a few months back. Thought about it for a couple of days before turning them down because I didn't like the sound of the business model, and the timing wasn't right for me. Just sounded to me like they're setting up as many of these community sites as they can in the hopes that some will work. They'll keep those and dump the dead weight. Just an impression from what I heard. Could be wrong.

I was told I'd get an iPhone, cell phone bill paid for, a laptop, a printer/scanner/copier, a police scanner and some other stuff if I was hired. I'd be flown to NYC for a sort of training seminar, put up in a nice hotel there for a few days.

I was also told they had, just recently, instituted a policy that stated each local editor had to take one weekend per month away from work. Which weekend would have to be arranged with the surrounding local editors, who would cover your area during your off weekend. This indicated to me that I could basically expect to work 28 out of 30 days each month ... maybe more, if this policy fell apart. Also, you had to always live within 10 minutes of whatever community you would be covering, which I thought really made hiring decent people for these positions rather difficult.

There's been some complaints in this thread about there being too much speculation, so I thought I'd toss in a post that's almost entirely lacking that. It's mostly just what I was told by the regional editor, and it sounds like it pretty much jives with what others have heard.

 

I guess it depends on where your Patch is. I know some regions have weekend editors. I guess some don't. Also, it probably depends on when this happened. The one thing that is very clear is that this wasn't meticulously planned ahead of time. It was launched on the fly, which means constant changes.

 

Our new Patch posters might do well to scroll down to the Paul Haggis v. Scientology article, it would give them some pointers on assessing reality from inside and outside the cult.

 

All fair points. And, like I said, this was several months ago (sometime in the late summer/early fall), so I couldn't tell you how the staffing/hours requirements have changed since then. Just thought I'd give a little snapshot of what I was told at that time.

 

No, what prompted me is I just read the thread today. I don't live on the site.

 

Patch local editors can hire a freelancer to cover their site and take time off whenever they want, it comes out of the freelance budget. Again, weekend work is up to the local editor. Except for breaking stories, they can assign a freelancer to report if there is a big game or other important event.

 

Except that, as noted on Page 5 from The Conference Call That May Or May Not Have Been Significant, freelance budgets have been slashed across the board. Anyone with a background in newspapers knows how that little game of coverage musical chairs ends: the employee covers everything or it doesn't get covered.

 

During my interview, I was told specifically that you should arrange with surrounding local editors to cover your area during your one weekend off per month. That one weekend off was required, they said. I suppose you could sic stringers on whatever you needed covered that weekend, and then send their copy through a different local editor, but I'm not sure what happens if there's a problem.

Anyway, like I said, that's just what I was told then. Could be different in different states/areas, and could be different now than it was a few months back.

 

I assume there is a rotation schedule? If it's a "just arrange it" scenario, that means that not many employees have a good idea on how to run a news operation.

 

The model will continue to evolve as Patch weeds out under-performing sites in 2012 and beefs up those with a chance to make money. Then resources can be redeployed to get the local editors some help. Clearly the local editors are not going to be able to continue at their present pace.

 

The length of time spent on the site shouldn't affect your ability to make cogent points. Your original post is not grounded in facts.