It was nice of you to offer “full disclosure”, but it was obvious from the outset. ;) I should probably disclose that I’m working for patch.com as an “independent contractor” on, what some might call the lowest rung of their ladder, but, as I’ve said, I come from many years in family business and can both recognize, and utilize, the huge value in going around shaking the hands of 100s of business owners each day.

While I think there’s no comparison and, therefore (at least not now), no real competition between the two, there’s still something to be said for “the feel” of local editors, and all kinds of “townies”, scooping out the local news, plus all the community having the opportunity to interact in a myriad of ways, versus that of aggregated news being reassembled into a local online rag. Again, the former engages the community and encourages community building; the latter continues to be a non-engaging form for passive reading.

The only advantage an Outside.In has over any hyper-local news venture is that it’s existence isn’t predicated on the survival of any one particular hyperlocal news venture.

Matt –

I’ve witnessed the innards of entrepreneurial internet marketing for quite some time so I like to think I can spot trends and the kind of innovation that springs from unintended consequences. So, imagine this (purely theory)…

Remember what AOL was? It was like one large city with a little bit of everything in it. It was large, like a T-Rex and it ate like one, too. But, even though it’s not out for the count, the “Dino Age”, for many, is coming to an end. So, just like we now have reptiles (and other animals) that are much smaller relatives of those dinos, I believe Patch could turn into a whole bunch of “mini-AOLs.”

Imagine this…

The grassroots buzz will reach a critical mass where Patch.com DOES get a whole lot of attention. All it takes is one, or two, well-placed mentions on a news network (just like the insane fiverr.com got the other day). So, while off to a slow, methodical start, getting a big boost of attention will not be the problem.

The question is on how to RETAIN those visitors; how to keep them coming back; and how to incentivize them to spread the word.

Since I’m going on too long for the “internet age attention span”, I’m going to sum this all up quickly…

Each patch starts off as a neat, well-developed, well-attended, community news website… THEN, ideally, we would see the backdooring in of the things that are piled on as “standard” in so many non-community local news sites… blogs and forums, for example.

Once a certain number of people sign up for news from a given patch, it’d be just perfect to see it offer blogs to the locals under local-based categories (e.g. Marblehead MA, a prolific sailing community, might have a blog community for boaters), and forums that eschew controversial topics but, instead, have sections that are supremely relevant to the individual city.

It’s called “framing”… you offer that stuff up first, and you’re offering too much. But start people off with a “bite” of hyperlocal community news, create buzz by putting up flyers around town and shaking the hands of 100s of business owners, and then… a little way down the road, offer added services that take almost nothing to maintain — maybe a few locals to monitor the forums for free.

From THERE, they could find all kinds of local talent to add to their talent pool, either for hire, or accepting article contributions for the free exposure (cooking tips by local restaurant owners, sailing tips by local yachters or charter boats, fly tying tips by local fishermen, etc. etc.)

Creating “mini-local-AOLs” from the inside-out…

I say never stop building, and always pay homage to synergies.

Ok, I’m out…! Thanks for stoking a fun, informative conservation.

Sam

What people see on Outside.in when they search for their cities/ nabes/ zip codes does not reflect the power of curation that Outside.in brings to the publishers via their platform. Thus, Patch.com vs Outside.in is not really an apple to apples comparison IMHO.

And, full disclosure, I work for Outside.in.