Patch Principles on Display at Grassroots Conference

For the past two days, all Patch editors in the Northeast region came together for a conference in New York City. Don't worry though, we never leave the communities we serve unattended - we had our laptop and phones out the entire time and guest editors on call to cover all breaking news and events.

Let's just say we sat through a lot of  seminars, heard a lot of speakers and had deep discussions about topics with fancy names like "user engagement" and "search engine optimization." But I'm not going to write about any of that here.

What I am going to do is take this chance to give you greater insight into Patch culture, which I got reminded of these past few days. I think it is important our readers get a sense of the people and policies that are making Patch stand out in today's media world.

Patch is different. Here's why:

• We are in the communities we cover: I don't take the train into the AOL building each morning or go to a corporate Patch office on Long Island. I cover Smithtown in Smithtown. I can usually be found writing articles or interviewing people in the Starbucks on Main Street or in the Smithtown Library (but not recently, parking's too difficult with the recent construction!)

• We are part of the communities we cover: The whole idea for Patch actually originated because one of our founders couldn't find a place online where he could find volunteer opportunities in his hometown. As a result, Patch is hugely committed to volunteerism: we donate five percent of our advertising to local charities and Patch employees regularly volunteer (I've volunteered at the library and at the emergency food pantry).

• We want you to be a part of the site:  It's all for you- the thorough directory of every business, organization and institution in town, the event listings constantly updated, the announcements forum and all the articles on topics that matter. But it's also by you- every directory listing, event, announcement and article has areas for you to contribute. You can write reviews about your favorite takeout restaurant, submit announcements if your kids make honor roll and comment on a fact we may have missed at the school board meeting last week. This is not a one-way conversation - our site is built so the community can talk to us just as much as we are talking to you.

• We are entrepreneurial: All Patch editors have formal journalism backgrounds but we know that journalism is at a crossroads. The internet and new technology are not obstacles for journalism but new opportunities for journalists to tell stories. I write articles about local meetings, like older media forms would, but I also use Twitter to promote attendance at that meeting, take video of the scene, use Facebook to gauge community reaction to the meeting decisions and am able to use hyperlinks to past articles on the subjects discussed. To top it off, we do this all in real time, hours, not days, after the meeting happened. We are constantly looking for innovative ways to deliver you information you deserve.

• We are evolving: Today we are in more than 200 communities and are launching in more every single day. Our engineering team is cooking up some great future features for all the sites and those features are based off suggestions from the editors in the field and, most importantly, from readers in our communities. We are always looking for ways for our sites to be cleaner, bolder and more user-friendly.

The conference was a great way for editors across different regions to share story ideas and effective methods for reaching our communities. Did this explanation help you understand Patch and our mission? Do you still have a question about Patch? Feel free to e-mail me at amandaf@patch.com with anything you are curious about or suggestions for our operation.