Patch was founded by then-president of
Google Americas operations
Tim Armstrong,
Warren Webster and Jon Brod in 2007 after Armstrong said he found a dearth of online information on his home-neighborhood of
Riverside, Connecticut. The company grew from 46 markets to over 400 in 2010, and by early 2011
The New York Times reported that it was "finding progress where others have failed", and had grown to 800 communities. In 2011, Patch acquired hyperlocal news aggregator Outside.in from investors including
Union Square Ventures and others, integrating the technology into the Patch platform. In 2013, Patch was spun out of AOL as a joint venture with Hale Global. In January 2014, the new owners announced layoffs of 400 journalists and other employees. In February 2016,
The Wall Street Journal reported that Patch had 23 million users, was profitable, and was expanding into new territories. In 2018, Patch completed its third profitable year in a row, attracting an average of 23.5 million unique visitors monthly. Patch employs nearly 150 people, including 110 full-time reporters, many from the nation's leading newsrooms. Alison Bernstein was named CEO in September 2019, and later transitioned to the company's board. Rob Cain, formerly of
Omron Adept, became Patch's CEO in November 2020. Charles Hale informed
Recode in 2019 that his network of 1,200-plus hyperlocal news sites was generating more than $20 million in annual ad revenue, without a
paywall. == References ==