AOL going on hiring binge for Patch; more job cuts likely

April 13, 2011 By Molly McHugh

The remodel continues, and the AOL-HuffPo team have major plans for Patch...including new writers.

After severe job cuts last month and news that disgruntled ex-Huffington Post writers will sue, AOL is about to hire hundreds of new writers. According to Bloomberg, part of the site’s restructuring will include hiring up to 800 full-time new staff members for Patch, which focuses on localized content. Good news for unemployed writers out there – bad news for current AOL and Huffington Post freelancers, many of which the hiring spree will eliminate.

Patch is currently up and running for 19 states and some 800 communities, and newly appointed editor in chief Arianna Huffington says that “Each site will now have its own team. It’s always great and better to have a team.” Sure, except for Patch’s current local editor and various freelancers currently responsible for content who now must fear being replaced. But Huffington seems undaunted and committed to the overhaul AOL is going through post merger, and wants to heighten Patch’s social element.

Clearly, AOL is need of change, and change Huffington is bringing. But there are consequences, and those are coming in the form of bad press: Firing 900 employees, accusations of unpaid bloggers, and replacing current staff with 800 new hires doesn’t exactly speak to a positive work environment. Still, it might speak to a successful one. Huffington sounds determined to fully capitalize on local, something AOL hasn’t been able to do on its own, and this effort is being challenged directly into Patch’s restructuring. The Patch network has been an expensive investment for AOL and thus far hasn’t amounted to much. When something’s broken, you fix it. So many sites are doing local better, and Patch needs to play a little catch up. But is it too late? If so, then all this investment in new writers will do is create a media firestorm and throw more money at something that just won’t work. The platform hasn’t generated much attention, and reviving it might be a lot of effort for little payoff.

Showing 2 comments

Socrates Maura at 5:43pm 27th April 2011 I disagree. As an long-time freelancer and editor-in-chief of a college newspaper, I can tell you that the focus for campus media is to be hyper-local. This is the mind-set of college reporters and fits perfectly for Patch. I sense your assumption is that the assigned material for college reporters is unique, which in your opinion renders the prose insufficient. I do agree with the less pay factor, which is often the case for any college graduate in any career. Lets see what the Editors pick for stories.
sanleandrotalk at 10:08am 14th April 2011 It may not be such bad news for local freelancers. The writer hired for our local Patch was herself a freelancer. She's a local girl, a couple of years out of college without much experience other than her college newspaper. I suspect that AOL is probably paying these new reporters so little that they won't get any actual journalists to do the job. I wrote a short article underlining the shortcomings of our local Patch in case it interests you: http://sanleandrotalk.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/sa...