Editor's Notebook: Patch Celebrates its 100th Site

When it comes to Patch, the grass is greener on both sides of the fence, and is always growing. In a nutshell, Patch serves up local news that people care about, produced by local journalists who care about the community.

The New York-based local news publisher, founded in February 2008, has been actively planting "Patches" in local communities for more than a year.

The first Patch sites launched in Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn-Short Hills, NJ, in February 2009. AOL acquired the company in June 2009, and AOL has since invested $50 million into the project.

Today, Patch is active in nine states — California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia -- and the District of Columbia.

Since the first Patch site launched, more than 55,000 articles and nearly 1 million photos devoted to local news coverage have been posted nationally.

Patch opened in the beach cities this year, launching sites for Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach.

Just this month in Hermosa Beach, Patch was the first to bring you news about the police and fire associations' lawsuit against the city. And just this weekend, Patch was the first news outlet to report on the arrests of six suspected house burglars.

But it's not just the hard news that Patch provides Hermosa. The site is also proud to celebrate community. We recently profiled the longest-lived residents of our town with our "Longevity in Hermosa" series, and we are starting to profile some young community members in our "Hermosa Legacies" series.

In its effort to reinvent local journalism, Patch invites community members to share their news and views. And we look forward to exciting things ahead.