Community Corner

Editor's Notebook: Patch Celebrates its 100th Site Launch

A big day for this site and other Patch sites.

Today is a big day for the website you're reading. Patch is launching its Morristown site, which will be the 100th Patch site. It's a major milestone for the company. As such, my bosses have asked each editor to write up something to mark the occasion.

I was one of the first editors hired at the company. Now, Patch is fairly well known. We're part of AOL, one of the world's most famous corporations and the company has been the subject of attention from national magazines. That was not the case when I launched the site in Maplewood in 2008, and I spent months going door to door, explaining what we wanted to do with this website that no one had ever heard of.

By the time I launched the Springfield site about a year later, the company's growth was evident. We had moved into Connecticut by then, but more immediately, when I introduced myself to people in the township, many already knew about Patch.

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It has been a genuine pleasure becoming part of Springfield's community. Everyone has been friendly. The town is full of people with big ideas and big personalities and I rarely have a shortage of news.

So in the spirit of self congratulation, here are some of the greatest hits of Springfield Patch:

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-This story, about the election night results from back in November, was the first story to be featured on the site. 

- And then there's this one, about a bomb threat that fizzled, that came a couple months later. In newspaper-ese, subheds are the second headlines in the story. This is the best subhed I've ever written. 

-One of the first big news stories Patch covered was a dead body found in Springfield near the Union border. This follow-up story has some nice CSI-style style intrigue.

-Alongside its hard news features, Springfield Patch has been able to present some humor and personality, as Deb Amlen demonstrates in her Next Exit column.

-Our great sports writers have followed successes of Dayton's sports teams, including soccer, football, softball and baseball as well as the boys and girls basketball. 

We've been able to spotlight some great artists and musicians from Springfield, including Rachel Millman, a singer and Dayton grad profiled by Marnie Fish. 

-Speaking of Dayton, a number of Dayton students have become involved with the site, including Brett Breibelberg, whose stories include a thoughtful editorial on whether students should be punished for comments made on social media website Facebook.com 

-As new businesses come into town, we've helped to let people know. Favorite examples include Dan Breau's profile of Morris Ave. coffee shop the Latin Quarter and Lois Cantwell's coverage of the new Stew Leonard's Wine Shop. 

-And last but not least, week after week, Vince Gragnani elevates getting lunch to an art. It took a lot of pestering for me to get him to Taco Bell, but I think the results were definitely worth it.

 


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