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Health & Fitness

So What happens To Patch Now?

So I received my daily Patch email this morning, telling me of the same lead news story that it has for the last three days.  This must be some incredible story!  Actually, it is.  It is about the PARC group that has been trying to get Plymouth Township officials to agree to sit down and have a conversation about repurposing Central Middle School into a Recreational and Arts Center.

That was the last big story before Patch's new owners picked up the phone and laid everyone off.  Hale Global, the company that purchased Patch from AOL, suddenly laid off pretty much everybody involved with the local Patch websites.  Thank you very much, but we are moving in a different direction. Good luck.

Well, that is their prerogative to be sure.  They bought the company from AOL, it was bleeding money, and apparently they are going to move in a different direction.  The question is what direction?  Nobody has said anything on the record, so who knows?  They must have some sort of plan.

I am saddened by this turn of events, because I had a good friend that was the editor for the Plymouth-Canton Patch when I first started blogging.  He is the one who talked me into writing a blog one day, and that has become a great hobby for me.  He always told me that I had a big mouth, and an opinion on everything, so why not write them down and share them?

The truth of the matter, is that when I first looked at his website, I commented on several articles, and basically defended the Republican point of view, which angered many Democrats, and the discussions raged on.  This sort of thing produces many clicks on articles, which drive up the traffic on the website, which increases the value of advertising.  Or something like that.

My friend is a liberal, and we have had many furniture busting arguments about politics, but we have always remained friends, despite our political differences, and he always allowed me the freedom to write about whatever I wanted to, as long as my facts were correct.

He took a lot of heat from local politicians for some of the blogs I wrote, and my blogs were absolutely the most scrutinized by not only him, but on occasion, his boss as well.  I think Johnny liked me as a blogger, because I challenged his editorial skills.  I forced him to make decisions that he knew he would take flack for.  I was basically a pain in his butt, and would bug him constantly.  He began refusing to even acknowledge my presence from Friday evening, until Monday morning, but he tolerated me because he knew I had passion for the things I wrote about.

So, why did Patch fail?  I really don't know that they failed.  I think that the editors actually succeeded in the direction that they were given by management.  They reported on as many community stories as their staffing levels would allow.  They were at as many community events as humanly possible.  Would I have liked them to be at more?  Sure, but a person can only be in one place at a time, and that became an issue, as AOL continued to shrink the staff.

There is one area where I saw a flawed business model.  In the blogging area, I saw many people were beginning to use the blog feature to advertise their businesses.  This always angered me.  I would spend two or three days perfecting a blog, and then I would post it, only to have it fall off the front page because a bunch of real estate agents were writing three sentence blogs, advertising their company.  Lawyers did this, catering companies, flower shops, massage therapists, some instant savings website, you name it.  They had no opinion on anything, they just wrote a misleading headline, and then followed it with three sentences advertising their company.

This is advertising money that Patch never generated.  Those people gamed the system to get free advertising.  They gamed the system, and bounced MY blogs off the front page, which would anger me, because if you aren't on the front page for at least a day, your work doesn't get noticed.  

I would see them post the same "blog" three times in a row, to monopolize the front page.  I once saw a lawyer write a "blog" to advertise his private practice, and it was full of spelling, and grammatical errors.  Who the heck would hire a lawyer who couldn't spell, or write a complete sentence?  Don't get me wrong, I don't claim to be some sort of accomplished journalist, and I never took advanced composition in high school, but at least make an effort! 

So basically, what the Patch devolved into, was a place where folks who should be paying for advertising, were cheaping out, and using the blog feature to advertise for free.  I guess that was not their fault, but rather the fault of management for allowing this to happen.

Why did this happen?  It was a matter if content I suspect.  The higher ups at Patch set content goals that the local editors couldn't possibly achieve. So the editors did what they had to do.  They had lots of blogs, and met the content numbers, but the most of the blogs were devoid of any real substance.  Not all of them, but most of them.

Deb Maddonna always inspired me with her blogs about her Miracle League kids.  Tony Lollio didn't write too many, but he was hands down the smartest blogger in the room.  Plymouth Township Trustee Bob Doroshewitz write a blog about his first campaign for trustee as well. 

The bottom line though, is that I think too few people were willing to share an opinion.  Maybe folks just don't want to put themselves out there for criticism, when they aren't getting paid to do it.  I was willing, and I took a lot of heat for some of my stuff, but I think some of my stuff made a small difference to some folks.

I wrote about a young lady named Kelsey Smith, and just this week, I sat with Representative Kurt Heise, and testified on behalf of the Kelsey Smith Act in front of the Criminal Justice Committee.

Without Patch, that may have never happened.  Without Patch, Mr. Heise would never have read the story, and contacted me with further questions.

Yes, Patch serves a local purpose for sure.  Our local elected officials read it. At least the smart ones do.  The smart elected official reads these local websites, as it gives them another perspective on how their constituents feel about issues.  It's easy to get lost in Lansing, or in your office, and lose touch with what your constituents deal with on a day to day basis.  Patch is a source for that information, and the smart ones like Mr. Heise know this, and pay attention.

So here we are.  Patch is right now, what some are calling, a zombie website.  A ghost ship, floating in the internet.  Functional, but with nobody steering the ship.  All of the buttons still work.  I can still post this blog.  I can still edit.  Everything works, there is just nobody at the helm.  Patch is sitting smack dab in the Bermuda Triangle of the internet.

Heck, truth be told, I no longer have the editor watching over me to keep me in check.  All of  those things I wanted to say, but couldn't, I can now say.  I can now re-post the Pinocchio picture my last editor forced me to take down.

It's funny, because there are some who would expect me to do just that, but the lessons that my friend Johnny taught me are somehow taking over, and I am showing surprising restraint.  

I am sad today, because Johnny is looking for another job, and I am still allowed to do what he taught and encouraged me to do, and that is share an opinion with whomever chooses to read it.

It seems as if I am the last person left on this ghost ship, and I really do not want to jump in the life boat and leave this ship behind.

I know Johnny will land on his feet, because he is a smart guy with lots to offer.  He is a good and decent fellow, and good things always end up happening to good people.  At least that is what I like to think.

As for me?  I think I might just stick around for a bit.  At least until the ship's galley runs out of Twinkies.  Heck, they are good for at least 20 years right?

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