Problems at Patch.com

Because there are no broadcast or print outlets out there that employ hacks. They all work for Patch. :

 

I live in Illinois's 7th congressional district, which is 54% African-American, and 8% Hispanic.

My state house district 10 is 50% African-American, and 12% Hispanic.

This is the view out my window:



In Houston, I lived in Sheila Jackson Lee's district.

I've lived in the Bronx, and above 86th Street on the West Side of Manhattan.

So, no bunkers.

Where do you live that you're so afraid of African-Americans?

 

Why do you insist I was talking about African-Americans?

That's what I meant about wrong assumptions, dumbass.

 

You decided it was safe to come out and play?

Glad you're safe. Stay away from the African-Americans!

 

It seems that Oct. 7 will be doomsday for some Patch outlets.

http://jimromenesko.com/2013/09/28/memo-regretfully-a-number-of-patches-will-have-to-be-closed/

MEMO: ‘REGRETFULLY, A NUMBER OF PATCHES WILL HAVE TO BE CLOSED’

Bud Rosenthal, the new CEO of AOL’s Patch, told employees in a memo sent at 6:14 p.m.patch ET Friday that “we have believed strongly in the value of a connected local community. However this commitment has not translated into success in every town we serve; therefore, regretfully, a number of Patches will have to be closed. …A handful of sites will close on Oct. 7.”

One of my tipsters writes: “We don’t know which sites will have an Oct. 7 blackout date.”

Rosenthal‘s memo:

All – as promised, we’d like to provide you with an update as we head into the coming weeks.

We have had – and continue to have — many productive conversations with potential partners who have positive feedback about Patch. In addition, we have made great strides in strengthening the product, including:

* Enhanced navigation design
* Social sharing features
* Enhanced publishing tools
* Updated news consumption layouts; and
* Increased content production, accelerated blogger recruitment and a significant growth in user contributions in our higher performing DMAs.
Rosenthal
Rosenthal

While product improvements and partnership discussions continue, we also need to move forward with the other components of our previously announced plans.

As you all know, since day one, we have believed strongly in the value of a connected local community. However this commitment has not translated into success in every town we serve; therefore, regretfully, a number of Patches will have to be closed. The following is an overview of the changes we’ll be making in order to direct our resources to other towns, so that we can continue to develop a better platform and meet our goals for profitability.

A handful of sites will close on Oct. 7 to optimize our closing procedures. We are continuing to develop our strategy for handling additional sites in the lower performing DMAs that might need to be closed in the near future per our previous conversations. Patches that are closed will still be available to our employees behind a firewall, but unavailable to the general public and former employees. People who try to access their town’s homepage will be redirected to a page explaining the changes. Our users in these affected towns will be notified a week in advance of the closures via an email (for registered users) and an article on the site (for all users).

Thanks to everyone for their diligence and patience as we work on restructuring our model. AOL remains committed to local and committed to Patch, and we are confident that the changes being made will enhance the user experience and value of Patch in the local communities it serves.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out. Thx.

Bud

 

Yeah, right. To reach out for ... what?

 

I've been told Patch.com will go away completely on Oct. 15.

 

YF,

Riptide's point regarding the shoddiness and danger of that kind of baiting for page views and reader "interest" is valid. This is particularly true given that, whether Patch.com goes under or not, there are many other Web sites out there going for page views and readership growth these days.

Something like this quite conceivably could be done someplace else, whether a place is considered reputable, or not. It's akin to a two-part TV episode or a cliff-hanger season-ending show, but is not a good idea in this kind of case.

And, there are places where it's a good idea to lock your car door as you go through them. Given your apparently diverse living situations, you should know that.

 

Great; that gives the Patch staffers a chance to grab some Holiday shifts at Wal-Mart, where they're sure to work shorter hours, for the same pay, and get more job satisfaction.

 

Question: Is the Oct. 7 closure tied to what was previously announced, or is this a new round?

Then again, if the Oct. 15 rumor is true, it's a moot point.

I'm going head to head with Patch on my beat, which has resulted in 50-plus hour weeks every week for me for the last year just to get everything on the Web that much faster.

 

What you've been told is either wrong, or there are a tremendous number of people lying about a great many things. Of course, this life is full of examples of a tremendous number of people lying about a great many things, so you never know.

 

Unless a lot of people on the LE level are being completely lied to, I don't think the entire company is being shuttered. Of course, we're talking about media jobs here, so I realize that nothing is impossible. However, I'm assuming that people are mistaking the closing of certain sites on Oct. 15 - the news of which came out during the mass layoffs a few weeks ago - with the whole company going down.