Patch (website)
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Type of site
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News |
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| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Area served | California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin |
| Owner | Hale Global |
| Key people | Charles C. Hale, Chairman; Warren St. John, CEO and Executive Editor |
| Services | Online news and opinion |
| Website | www |
| Alexa rank | 114 (U.S.) |
| Launched | December 2007 |
| Current status | Active |
Patch is an independent U.S. local news and information platform, primarily owned by Hale Global. As of May 2014, Patch operated some 906 local and hyperlocal news websites in 23 U.S. states.Patch Media Corporation is the operator of the service.
Patch was founded by Tim Armstrong, Warren Webster and Jon Brod in 2007 after Armstrong said he found a dearth of online information on his hometown of Riverside, Connecticut. The company was acquired by AOL in 2009 shortly after Armstrong became AOL's CEO. Armstrong told AOL staffers that he recused himself from negotiations to acquire the company and did not directly profit from his seed investment. He instead asked that his seed money be returned to him in the form of AOL stock when it split from Time Warner.
The acquisition occurred on June 11, 2009. AOL paid an estimated $7 million in cash for the news platform as part of its effort to reinvent itself as a content provider beyond its legacy dial-up Internet business. AOL, which split from Time Warner in late 2009, announced in 2010 it would be investing $50 million or more into the startup of the Patch.com network. As part of the acquisition Brod became President of AOL Ventures, Local & Mapping, and Warren Webster became president of Patch.
On August 9, 2013, AOL announced it would be laying off staff at all levels. On an all-staff conference call, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced that the number of staffed Patch sites will be reduced from 900 to 600. Creative Director Abel Lenz was also publicly fired by Tim Armstrong at that time.
On January 15, 2014, AOL spun off Patch and sold majority ownership to Hale Global. With the sale's closure, AOL laid off several hundred more staffers before turning control of Patch over to Hale. In May 2014, the company announced the first profitable quarter in its history.
In February 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that Patch had 23 million users, was profitable and expanding into new territories.
Patch sites contain news and human interest stories reported locally. In 2010, the company expected to be the largest hirer of full-time journalists in the United States. Each site contains a mixture of local and national advertising.
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