Andrew Beaujon
May 17, 2013
2:37 pm
All Things D
Steve Kalin is Patch's new CEO, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told Patch employees in an email Friday. Patch will also make several motions that Armstrong writes will "move Patch meaningfully toward profitability." Among them:
layoffs.
The changes we are making at Patch, however, come with the difficult decision to eliminate some positions. These employees have contributed greatly to Patch’s business with passion and dedication. We sincerely thank them for all they have done to make Patch what it is today. Their impact will always be felt here. We wish all affected employees continued success. They are truly Patchers for life.
Via email, Patch spokesperson Joe Wiggins replied affirmatively when Poynter asked whether editorial jobs would be among those going. He sent along this statement:
Patch is streamlining its regional editorial structure across the country by moving from 20 to nine teams. We are implementing this team approach based on the success of our field tests earlier this year. The team approach allows for flexibility based on the unique needs of each community and the strengths of our editors. We are not reducing our number of sites or our coverage area as a result of this change.
Making these important changes came with the difficult decision to eliminate some positions. We recognize these changes are painful for individuals and for our organization - and we are committed to handling the people impacted with care and sensitivity.
The company will host a "Patch All-Company call" at 6 p.m. ET Friday.
Last fall, Patch began
rolling out a new site design. The new design means editors will be "
taking a less central role," Laura Hazard Owen reported at the time. “
We’re not doing a pivot,” Patch content honcho Rachel Feddersen told Jeff Bercovici. “This is an amplification. The redesign doesn’t take anything away from the journalism we’re creating.”
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Andrew Beaujon
Nov. 6, 2012
8:00 am
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Steve Myers
July 25, 2012
8:37 am
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Andrew Beaujon
June 14, 2012
9:58 am
AOL
Starboard, the activist investment group that expressed great skepticism about AOL's content-based strategy, lost its bid to place three members on the company's board at today's annual meeting.
AOL's entire present board was re-elected, a company news release says.
This may mean some more breathing space for Patch, AOL's local-news initiative, which would have been in the crosshairs of any Starboard-affiliated directors. Starboard prepared an
investor presentation for the SEC saying it did not believe Patch was a "viable business," estimating it was losing “approximately $79 million to $133 million per year.”
Related:
Patch reports record audience as AOL faces proxy fight
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Jeff Sonderman
June 13, 2012
9:04 am
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Andrew Beaujon
June 11, 2012
1:58 pm
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Andrew Beaujon and Julie Moos
May 9, 2012
7:50 am
MarketWatch |
All Things D |
Pando Daily |
The Hook |
GigaOm
AOL
released its first-quarter earnings today, posting a 5 percent rise in advertising revenue and a 14 percent drop in subscribers to its Internet access business compared to the first quarter of last year. Domestic display ad sales declined by 1 percent, which Peter Kafka says will be "
fresh meat for AOL critics" like investment firm Starboard Value,
which believes content is "a high cost strategy," that requires "substantial in-house editorial and sales personnel." It also says it thinks AOL's Patch has a "structurally flawed business model."
AOL's first-quarter report says "Patch grew traffic and advertisers over 40% year-over-year and revenue over 100% year-over-year."
During a conference call Wednesday morning, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said that "there's a lot of noise about Patch" but it remains "a very long value proposition for us." Patch has already booked revenue for 2012 that exceeds revenue booked in 2011 and will be profitable by the end of 2013, in part by lowering expenses, he said. Expenses have been lowered as town and regional staffs have "smartly organized the editorial process." Armstrong also said Patch is planning a new product. Despite that growth, Kafka notes that "Traffic is down 4 percent to AOL's own properties over the last year." Armstrong said that in the first quarter total unique visitors grew, in particular at Huffington Post, Moviefone, Patch and AOL Autos. Huffington Post, he said, had one billion page views from Jan. 1 through March 31. Accompanying information, though, shows unique visitors at AOL properties are down since the second quarter of 2011, when it reported 113 million uniques; this quarter the company reports 108 million.
(more...)
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Jeff Sonderman
Apr. 2, 2012
6:36 am
The mobile team at AOL is finding success with a new publishing model that plucks the best longform and enterprise writing from an otherwise fast-paced website and republishes it in a design-rich tablet magazine.
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- Distro is a free weekly tablet
… Read more
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Jeff Sonderman
Oct. 6, 2011
12:58 pm
Adweek |
Forbes
The Huffington Post continues to roll out
local news websites for major U.S. cities, with HuffPost Detroit and HuffPost Miami coming in November, Adweek reports. HuffPost currently has sites for New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Adweek's Dylan Byers says this renews concerns about what the future holds for
Patch, which was supposed to be parent company
AOL's star local news project.
Meanwhile, Forbes' Jeff Bercovici reports that Patch is
no longer guaranteeing that it will be in
1,000 towns by the end of the year. Growth has slowed in the past six months, with a current network of 864 sites. “Our plan is to continue to add sites where it makes sense,” Patch President Warren Webster told Forbes. “We’re not as focused on 1,000 as a number as we are on smart, sensible investments in communities -- but we expect to be around 1,000 sites by year’s end. ... And regardless we expect to continue to expand Patch into 2012.”
Earlier: AOL says it is
"very committed" to Patch investment |
Why don't Patch editors start their own sites?
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Jim Romenesko
Sep. 23, 2011
4:01 pm
Business Insider |
WSJ.com
A Patch editor from the East Coast tells Nicholas Carlson that coming up with advertising possibilities "is a bridge too far by any measure" and "requiring journalists -- already run ragged by their normal duties -- to do this is so far beyond the pale it actually makes my stomach hurt." The editor says his job requires that he....
Post seven pieces of content a day, with a minimum of four; Edit all copy and photographs; Shoot and edit video for stories and as stand-alone content; Main reporter and writer (with no editor or copyeditor); Main photographer; Contract freelancers and assign stories; Maintain budget (couple grand, more or less) per month; Pay freelancers twice a week; Recruit and edit stable of bloggers; Track all users and comments on site; Acquire guest editor for vacation days (and pay them from my own budget at $100 a day); Post to Facebook and Twitter four to six times a day (twice a day on weekends)
The source says lead editors are responsible for organizing marketing events, which involves carrying a large Patch banner and other items, such as chairs, barrels for bottled water giveaways, iced tea in hot weather, or coffee urns in cold weather. In some markets, the editor has to take a "prize wheel" to events.
Dow Jones reported earlier this week that AOL chief Tim Armstrong wants at least some Patch sites to turn a profit this year. If Patch veers "way off track," he said, AOL could explore a sale. || In January,
Nicholas Carlson wrote that "the real problem with Patch is that no one needs it." He
followed that up in March with some thoughts on what Patch has to do to succeed "and prove us wrong." || Read Patch stories
from the Romenesko+ archives.
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