When you think of AOL, your image is probably that of an Internet pioneer, now a major e-mail provider. And the phrase you probably associate with AOL is the signature greeting, “You’ve got mail.”
So imagine the same voice, but this time he’s saying “You’ve got competition.”
AOL is now more than an Internet portal – now it’s also a content provider following the launch in 2009 of Patch, a network of news sites. Currently there are more than 450 in 19 states throughout the nation, with 500 planned for the near future. Each covers a community of between 20,000 and 50,000.
Patch was the biggest hirer of journalists in the United States in 2010 – each site has a full-time local editor, supplemented by freelancers. Each site features free access, supported by local advertising. And AOL’s pockets are deep enough to sustain losses while they wait for Patch to take hold.
Patch features a back-to-the-basics approach. They have hyperlocal content – people news, local government, schools, crime, sports and the like.
I recently talked with Patch representatives about Texas – and the news there is that while there are no Patch sites in the Texas, we’re definitely on their radar. And indeed, I notice that Patch is advertising to make a hire right now in Dallas.
Patch has claimed that it can come into a community and operate at 4.1 percent of your operating costs – remember, they don’t buy newsprint or pay for real estate. The “office” of a Patch editor is his or her briefcase or backpack. One Patch editor told a reporter for the Chicago Reader: "Part of my job is being visible and accessible. It means I'm working in coffee shops all over my coverage area. I have a big Patch sticker on the back of my laptop, so when I'm working people can recognize me. Since my site is so young it's a mix of curiosity—'What is Patch?'—and 'Oh, you're the Patch girl. You look much younger.' I didn't explode on the scene, but I've found that as people discover my site they like it. And they come back."
So how seriously should Texas community newspapers look at Patch? The jury’s still out on that until we see what Patch ends up doing in the state. But the real issue here is not Patch – it’s the whole idea of online news operations that can provide competition while operating at a fraction of our costs.
And that is a topic of concern for every print-first operation in Texas.