We’ve all heard the news about Patch‘s aggressive expansion plans in local news. It’s one thing to hear about all the money they’re spending (reportedly $50 million this year), but another thing to see a blast of 300 job postings for sites all over the country — a veritable carpet-bombing run of new local and hyperlocal news sites.
First, the details. They’re hiring folks for sites in Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, DC, Virginia, Maryland, Miami, Dallas, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Milwaukee — and that’s in addition to expansion in Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
This is an unprecedented effort to build local news communities, and by extension, compete with struggling local newspapers and in some cases, independent city and neighborhood news operations. Patch has said that it’s open to working with newspapers and blogs, but the fact remains that it’s creating sites that aim to be community news destinations, all vying for the same local ad revenue, powered by a staggering bankroll and fueled by massive distribution via AOL.
Sure, the jury is still out on whether Patch is a sustainable model. But I’m a little surprised that Patch’s expansion hasn’t received more, well, notes of concern among traditional local news organizations and journalism startups. As Baristanet (one of the innovators in the space) said last February when the first few sites started appearing in New Jersey, “They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
In the next few months, imitation will turn into an all-out competitive blitz, and it will be interesting to see the reactions from local media organizations and journalism startups.
(Full disclosure: I’m the co-founder of Next Door Media, a network of neighborhood news blogs in Seattle which may soon be competing head-to-head with Patch.)
