Problems at Patch.com

Does Drudge do hyperlocal news?

 

Wait, they're a nepotistic little fiefdom that shits on its employees, has no idea how to make money and puts people in charge who are clearly idiots? Well maybe they're a journalism organization after all.

 

The gap between Patch & the NY Times just got a little smaller:

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/confessions-of-patch-salesperson-we-sell-garbage-2011-6

 

Takes apart the whole business model.

And apparently, someone believes in branding, because that's what Patch is selling its advertisers instead of a measurable, sales driven ad campaign:

As I said much earlier in this thread, a small business would be much better off spending money with Groupon, LivingSocial, Constant Contact, etc.

 

You say you don't believe Patch makes sense financially. How come?

When it gets down to paying the editors, paying the sales staff, paying the management and the requisite expenses that go along with that, the numbers just do not compute. The advertising cannot support the local Patch model the way it stands. From a dollar standpoint, it simply will not add up.


Free drinks!

 

Hey, the next time BI writes a balanced article on Patch or AOL, it'll be the first. Carlson's entire writing archive is just hit pieces on various companies.

Or, put it this way: If Patch ran a story based on one disgruntled employee, it would get killed by some in this thread. At least from that story, there isn't any indication that he tried to get more than a single angry source.

 

OK. That's fair.

Anybody interested in rebutting the points made in the article/interview?

 

I work for a tiny daily, and we've been selling Groupon-type deals for almost one year.

So if we can do it ...

 

I don't think it's a fair story but it is some insight into the business model. At least brings something in the form of information to the discussion here.

 

Yes. Whether it meets our publication standards and whether we believe what he's saying are two distinctly different issues.

 

Washington Post is doing this, too, and it's pathetic.