Some are billing it as a back-door way for Google to enter the news business.
Tim Armstrong, Google’s president of advertising for North America and Latin America, is underwriting a new startup called Patch, which plans to put small teams of journalists in communities all over the country to produce hyper-local news content.
“Tim believes that Patch should be in every community in America, and wants Patch in his town,” says the company’s website.
“He wants to read local news stories done by journalists, make sure that local government is transparent and accountable, see all the ways he can give back to his community, and have his town be as interesting and alive online as it is offline.”
Armstrong’s investment is through his personal investment fund, Polar Capital Group; for now, Patch has no direct link to Google.
Most of the company’s paid staff of 20 are engineering and advertising types, not reporters and editors. Patch is reportedly hiring one journalist per town. To start with, it has set up “patches” in three towns in suburban New Jersey - South Orange, Maplewood, and Millburn.
Patch’s editor-in-chief is Brian Farnham, who had been the top editor of Time Out New York magazine.
The company also has an editorial advisory board - Phil Meyer, professor emeritus in the journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York’s new Graduate School of Journalism who blogs about media at Buzzmachine.com.
Still, one can’t help wondering whether this is a news experiment, or simply a new approach to sucking up local advertising dollars - one of the last sources of revenue for cash-starved local newspapers.
While Armstrong certainly extols high-minded objectives - to “help deliver a commercially viable way for communities to support the important work of local journalists, institutions, governments, and businesses” - we’re waiting to see where it goes and also, whether Google jumps in if it proves profitable.
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2 Comments
#1. mr. maplewood 02.23.2009
I live in Maplewood and there is no sign of these guys yet. None. We’ll see.
#2. AJANS 02.25.2009
Yes it’s not a new idea. We think www.ourpatch.com.au is remarkably similar.
You are right it’s not a new idea and it’s a challenge. We’ve focussed on rural/regional Australia and while our traffic has grown strongly getting advertisers to care has been a huge challenge.
Another challenge is when it’s truly hyperlocal there is not always enough news to go around. It all makes sense but it’s harder than it looks.
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