New Hampshire Patch Turns 14; Editor Wins NH Press Association Awards; TY! To You

CONCORD, NH — Has it been another year?

Yes, it has. Patch in New Hampshire turned 14 today. On June 17, 2011, the Concord NH Patch news and community website went live. It was the state’s flagship site. Patch quickly expanded from 10 to 12, with 10 full-time local editors, a regional editor, and an assistant regional editor.

The concept by AOL was a good one: Have a local editor in each community curating and creating content for the public free of charge, via a newsletter and alerts. Regional salespeople would sell local ads, network ads would also be sold across the thousands of sites, and it would grow from there.

A month before the launch, I was hired to build elements for the site as part of the team of “primary Patchers,” who were dropped into Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to cover the 2012 presidential primary elections. It was great to produce news in my hometown again after stints at WKXL and posting notes on my own news site and political blog, especially since Schinellas have been Concord residents since 1907.

And, for all these years, it has been great having everyone call me “the Patch guy.”

During the first year, I broke some really big stories on the Concord site, which was named the Best News Website in the state by the New Hampshire Press Association and Media Outlet of the Year by the state Grange.

But creating news, as everyone in the business knows, is expensive.

Under pressure from aggressive shareholders and investment managers upset by the cost of building the forward-thinking Patch concept, AOL was forced to sell the company. (AOL would later be sold to Verizon). I was lucky enough to be kept on the lifeboat, as we called it at the time.

Patch has been privately owned since. It is profitable and expanding — creating tens of thousands of newsletter sites in communities across the United States. In New Hampshire, along with our 13 community-based sites and our statewide site for news partner posts and other items (Across NH Patch), we now have 180 newsletter sites, serving communities from Ackworth to Woodstock, with more coming: At some point, probably early next year, we’ll have a newsletter for every community in the Granite State.

The newsletter project is in its infancy and is a work in progress. It’s local weather, event listings, notes from the community, obituaries, and shared news stories from other outlets. But I’m very excited about it.

Fun fact: Between Sept. 3, 2014, and June 16, 2025, the 14 Patch sites in New Hampshire derived more than 145.2 million page views (Note: Data between June 17, 2011, and Sept. 4, 2014, is lost to the Google data world…).

Most Read Posts & Stories

Here is a roundup of the most-read posts on Patch in New Hampshire during the past 14 years:

1. 'She Made a Lot of Bad Decisions': Family's Heartbreaking Obituary for NH Woman Who Died of Heroin Overdose
2. Immigration Checkpoint On Major New Hampshire Highway
3. 10 Things Every High School Graduate Should Hear
4. NH Educator Becomes One Of The Oldest Women To Give Birth In U.S.
5. NWS Issues NH Winter Weather Advisory for Upcoming Multifaceted Storm
6. Shredded Chicken — Who Knew it Was So Easy?
7. Couple Going At It On Hood Of Car Arrested: Cops
8. 2 People Dead At Bedford Hotel; Guest Describes 'Machete Attack'
9. More UFO Lights Seen Over Concord
10. Dead Body Found In Merrimack River: Video
11. 8 Tiny Houses for Sale in NH
12. UFO Update: Craft Was Seen in Concord, Boscawen
13. Radio Talk Show Host Howie Carr Has Medical Episode, Collapses During Live Broadcast
14. NH Hospital ‘Active Shooter’ Incident Under Investigation In Concord: State Police

Patch Wins 4 NHPA Awards

In the past, the annual note to readers featured a video of candles, cake, and/or cupcakes as a way of celebrating.

That, too, was also an excuse to get my boys and me some dessert (or go out to eat and get dessert). For the third birthday, I held an event at The Draft, where I used to do “Tuesdays with Tony” editorial meetings — have a drink with me and yak it up. As part of the event, they were nice enough to order a huge cake, too. Everyone joined in to sing. It was a lot of fun. Another time, the 4th, I believe, when there was a cupcake store downtown, I ordered ones with green frosting for the occasion.

During the past few years, though, it has been presents, not cake, in the form of New Hampshire Press Association awards (yeah for me; I won 4!)

Patch’s b-day is right around the same time as the release of the nominations or the pre-summer banquet. This year, it was last week. Instead of having a post about the awards, I figured I would roll them into one.

This year’s winners were for Spot News, Government Reporting, Sports Writing, and Best Use Of Video. This brings me to more than 50 awards for local online, print, and radio journalism (I really should go back and count to get an exact number. But, at this stage of the game, who really cares? I have nothing to prove to anyone...).

My two stories about the Bay State Games wrestling tournament fiasco last summer (“Bay State Games Wrestling Sent Into Chaos As Refs Walk Before End Of Delayed Tournament” and “Bay State Games ‘Deeply Apologizes’ For 2024 Wrestling Tourney’s Premature, Chaotic End”) where the refs walked before the end of the tourney and then, the organizers apologized to the wrestlers, took second place. This was my first time entering something in the Sports Writing category (Seriously? Yup!).

I placed second in the Government Reporting category for series of stories about the hiring of Kyle Repucci as principal of the Broken Ground Elementary School in Concord who spied on members of the Rochester school board when he was the superintendent there (“New Concord Elementary School Principal Accused Of Spying On Rochester School Board Member,” “Rochester Teacher Survey Raised ‘Many Concerns’ About SAU 54 District Leadership,” and “Despite Flawed Process, Some Concord School Board Members Stand By Repucci Hiring”).

“A controversy that spans two communities,” a judge wrote about the stories. “A great job in connecting the two, and in digesting and explaining why the public might be concerned. While the information came in a flurry, the journalist did an exceptional job making sure the various angles were covered. A wonderful reminder as to why the media serves as watchdog.”

Indeed.

In Best Use of Video, “Gifts For Nearly 3,000 Needy Children In New Hampshire Are Being Shipped Around The State,” took second place.

For Spot News, “Concord Firefighters Battle 2-Story Homeless Shack Fire: Watch,” placed third.

Often, during award season, a journalist can overthink the process.

Admittedly, the work published in 2024 was not as impressive as in prior years; fewer entries were submitted than in the past. There is also a lot of competition in the Class 2 Division of news organizations (editorial staff of four or less) as news organizations shrink and small, new ones appear. And, yes, there was a lot of good work produced last year by journalists in New Hampshire.

Nancy West of InDepthNH, Tony Schinella of New Hampshire Patch, Michael Graham of NH Journal, and Damien Fisher of both InDepthNH and NH Journal at the NHPA Awards Banquet on June 12. Credit: Patch Contributor

Congrats To Patch News Partners

• Damien Fisher Wins NHPA Awards for Investigative Reporting and Community Service; 6 Others Also Honored
• Bulletin wins 10 awards at annual New Hampshire Press Association honors

There were a couple of disappointments.

One miss was the stories about the body found buried in a yard in an Airport Road drug den in Concord for the Crime-Court Reporting category. This was a Patch Exclusive, breaking news no other outlet had, with video — they were sifting in the dirt for clues (!) and multiple updates. How that did not win, I’ll never understand.

The review of the Duran Duran concert (“At New Hampshire Debut, Duran Duran Disappointingly Dabble; But Fans Didn’t Seem To Mind”) was a fun entry for A&E Reporting, I thought.

It’s OK, though. The rest that missed were, admittedly, not amazing. And it is hard to look at thousands of posts and stories published in a year and figure out the ones that might find a twinkle in the judges’ eyes.

Also Read

• NH Patch Turns 13: A Quick Belated ‘Thank You’ To Concord, 13 Other Cities & Towns
• Patch In New Hampshire Becomes A Preteen: Here’s To Turning The Awkward Age Of 12
• Happy Birthday, New Hampshire Patch 'Goes To 11': Watch
• NH Patch Turns 10; Editor Named Journalist Of The Year Finalist
• Patch In New Hampshire Turns 9: Thank You, Concord!
• Concord NH Patch Turns 8: Thank You, Capital Region Readers!
• The 7th birthday was Tony’s lost year …
• Concord NH Patch Turns 6
• Concord NH Patch Turns 5
• Concord NH Patch Turns 4
• Happy Birthday Concord NH Patch!
• Where is the 2nd Birthday post? I have no idea …
• Happy Birthday, Concord NH Patch!

While entering the twilight of a media career (at almost 60, it’s time to begin to figure out what is next…), there is much to reflect on.

Life has always felt like being a gerbil on a treadmill, hasn’t it? Patch doesn’t have a print edition. So often, it is a chase for the clicks and big stories — even if those stories and truths make readers uncomfortable. This happens. It is part of life.

The good Lord willing, I’m not going anywhere. And I am truly grateful to all of you who make working here so worthwhile.

As always, thank you for reading, sharing posts, offering comments and criticism (journos learn more from critique than praise), and sending tips. Thank you to our advertisers who keep the lights on, our event posters, and contributors.

Do you have a news tip? Please email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube or Rumble channels. Patch in New Hampshire is now in 190 communities. Also, follow Patch on Google Discover.