Within the next month, a new source of online news and information covering local neighborhoods in the Bay area will be available to readers.
Say hello to Patch AOL, which since its inception a year ago has quickly spread to over 300 local markets across the country, providing what is referred to as hyper-local online information.
Patchs strategy isnt to cover major metropolitan areas, but smaller cities and suburbs in regions where daily newspapers have been hit particularly hard by staff reductions. The corporation has so far announced sites for six neighhborhoods in the Bay area downtown St. Pete/Old-Northeast, Brandon, Sarasota, Bradenton, Westchase & Bloomingdale and intends to host 24 by the end of this year.
Patch AOL is the rare media company that is aggressively hiring reporters, including several among them Nicole Hutcheson in Westchase and Camille Spencer in Carrollwood who are alumni of the St. Petersburg Times.