Problems at Patch.com

Not sure it really brings much information. Out of 900 employees, they found one willing to rip the company with a lot of opinion and vague comments about sales dropping (No specifics given).

More fodder for the Patch bashers and nothing that really changes the opinion of the Patch employees who post here or those of us who are taking a wait-and-see approach.

 

When you're heading towards a cliff, I'm not sure a wait-and-see approach is advisable.

 

From what I can tell, it's not like there are many Patch editors turning down offers elsewhere. Lots of good people in this business out of work. Even if it eventually fails, a year or two of a paycheck and more work on the resume ain't a bad thing.

 

More questions about Patch's model and long-term viability are kind of aggregated here:

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/137464/patch-critiques-raise-questions-defense-of-hyperlocal-journalism/

 

I thought there would be interest here in this Ad Age story on Patch, http://adage.com/article/digital/aol-s-patch-a-hyper-local/231445/

 

Personally speaking, and I hope not to offend anyone who is still employed them, patch sucks.

 

If you want to write about real estate open houses and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, Patch is for you.

 

Meh - For the most part, the few mergers they've done have been in places where it makes sense. For example, towns that share a school district or other services. (Disclosure: I run a Patch site in Rhode Island.)

 

I have to think the comments of this disgruntled institutional investor will be an issue for AOL and Patch in 2012:

http://blogs.wSportsJournalists.com/deals/2011/12/21/read-letter-from-unhappy-aol-investors/?mod=yahoo_hs

 

Not saying Patch is, was, or ever will be such a great investment idea, but AOL's already sunk so much money into this it's hard to see them cut and run at this point. I could see them making huge cutbacks and turning it into a glorified Groupon (which I think was the whole idea in the first place), but I just don't see them blowing the whole thing up yet.

 

I'm not rooting for Patch to fail. It's become a big part of my community, especially with the dailies cutting back. Plus, anyplace that employs journalists is fine by me.

 

If you call what Patch does as journalism, at least in some markets. More likely, working at Patch is delaying the inevitable --a painful career change.