Problems at Patch.com

The Shelton prom is the kind of thing a well-run Patch can do right - strike a chord in the community, and keep advancing the story - it doesn't even have to be sensationalized; just let the principals speak . Very well done.

 

I overheard a school committee member say the following Tuesday afternoon "I used to check out Patch every day when they started. It was really good. Now it's just a bunch of crap about flowers and parades."

Sums it up quite nicely I do believe.

 

This could be a new slogan.

 

My counterpoints would be that at least in my area, one competitor is doing the flowers and parade crap, but only twice a week, and the other competitor does mostly hard news but they're a weekly. And the second thing is that, at least judging from website hits and response, is that traditional things like blanket coverage of town council and school committee meetings aren't necessarily the most prudent allocation of resources.

 

News coverage is moving away from a offering full dinner with meat, potatoes, vegetables and dessert to some potatoes and dessert.

 

Oh, believe me, I know. While the Patch I compete with has about 80% more flowers and parade crap than hard news, they're still out there at every TC and SC meeting and they even scooped me on a story this week. (It's OK, I scooped them on three this week alone. )

Just sayin'. People are noticing the significant difference between the Patch sites when they launched and now. And maybe it's the push toward "community journalism (Read: Free crap) but there definitely seems to be a sliding in quality at most of the sites I've seen.

 

OK, I lose.

The following day, they contacted more people involved, and it turned out the story was not true.

http://groton.patch.com/articles/edc-chairman-pfizer-to-tear-down-buildings-in-groton

 

Had to share this with you guys.

So today I was helping out the sports section and covering the state tennis tournament. The only media members there were me and some woman I had never seen who was with one of the local Patch websites.

She was "covering" one of the teams I was so, as I was standing there, I got to see her taking notes. That was fine.

What wasn't fine was when she started cheering openly for the team she was "covering". And I don't mean she was quietly rooting for them or clapping when they made a point. At one point, she walked by one of the courts and yelled "Come on guys, let's go EG!!!!".

I couldn't help but stare with my mouth wide open. I'd never seen such blatent homerism in my life. I didn't say nothing to her because, well, I don't want to discourage her from continuing to trash the name of her employers.

 

No, that was Shelton, sgreenwell.

But the Southeastern Patch does a decent job on news. I have been reading it a good deal lately, though I read The Day every day. I used to work/live there, and it keeps me in touch.

 

I've seen the same behavior from writers at Podunk weeklies.

 

Exactly.

 

If Schiz is talking about who I think he's talking about, she's an EGHS parent.