Who are we?

Patch is a community platform and the only national hyperlocal news and information network. We’re now in 1,200 communities, with more on the way. Patches are captained by full-time journalists who tap into their communities, figure out what makes them tick and cover them accordingly.

Patches come in various sizes and themes:

Hyperlocal Community Patches serve cities, suburbs, villages and neighborhoods.
Metro Patches (Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, L.A.) are anchor sites that host regional and general interest content.
Across State Patches provide a home for coverage that lacks a "home" Patch.
Specialty Patches, such as our Across America Patch and Dealtown Patch serve niche interests.

The Tools We Use

Where to write stuff? Our CMS is proprietary, continually evolving and improving. Several times a month, our developers create and deploy new features for editors and users, including pre-fill jobs, calendar and real-estate articles, automated posts, local streams, special pinning tools and more.

Newsletters and alerts? Our SuperPinner is also our own creation. We program newsletters and send instant news alerts and local update emails through the Pinner.

Looking for a photo? Try WebDAM, our Patch-built and maintained photo archive is updated regularly, with vetted photos that are safe to use and clearly labeled with an image source or credit. You will also use your own photos, and learn how to use AP and Getty Images.

Questions on Patch Style? We've got you covered. Check out our Style Guide.

How We Make Money

Some of our ad revenue is tied directly to our ability to generate page views on:

Topics of strong local interest
Recurring staple content (such as local real estate, jobs and events)
Local stories of general appeal with potential to go viral/national

Strong local coverage also helps our national ad team make deals with enterprise national partners, such as T-Mobile and others.

How Your Work Is Judged

An editor's performance is judged by his or her quality of work and ability to generate page views, which come from a consistent audience. Audiences come back because of good news judgment, productivity, effective newsletter programming, social media promotion and search engine optimization.

There are 3 main metrics:

Exclusives (at least 14 per editor per month)
Rolling 30-day byline page views (minimum of 300-350K PVs a month)
Article production

Your manager will regularly review your monthly metrics. All staffers receive performance review once a year.

Patch's analytics team provides editors with data about page views, email open rates, subscribe and unsubscribe rates and other key metrics through the primary editor dashboard.

Now, on to "Creating On Patch" in the dropdown!