Editor's Notebook: Patch Celebrates Its 100th Site Launch

I'm so excited to announce that we have launched our 100th Patch site nationwide. The site with that particular honor is the Morristown, NJ, Patch. This is a huge accomplishment for our company, since we work to provide hyper-local news coverage of towns like Riverdale Park and University Park and rely on support from residents.

Since our Patch is new to town, I'm sure that there is some curiosity about how our company was started.

Patch was founded in February 2008 in New York City, and the first Patch sites were launched simultaneously a year later in Maplewood, South Orange and Milburn-Short Hills, NJ. In June of 2009, AOL acquired the company and has since invested more than $50 million in Patch.

Our first two sites in Maryland were Riverdale Park-University Park Patch and College Park Patch, which launched just two weeks ago on July 30. Now, Patch is in nine different states, including Maryland and Virginia. Our first Virginia site was Reston Patch, which was launched Aug. 12.

Although we've only been live in Riverdale Park and University Park for a few weeks, I'm confident that we will become a great source for local news. We hope that as time goes on, more readers will contribute comments and ideas and give feedback about what we're covering.

We're looking forward to the future and other Patch sites launching in our area. Hyattsville Patch will launch this Friday, and residents should expect to see other Patches launch in Maryland soon, including in Takoma Park, Wheaton, Lutherville-Timonium and Greater Annapolis.

As always, if you have suggestions for our coverage or feedback, I welcome them at any time. Just e-mail me at sonia@patch.com.