Back At Patch Reporting Community Journalism: Opinion

I’ve gone Back to the Future!

After almost a decade away, I’m now once again a Patcher, proudly displaying my green Patch T-shirt anywhere I can be seen. I have a Patch coffee mug and hat to match too. And a little more professional Patch shirt with a collar.

Hopefully soon, you’ll see me wearing my Patch swag around town.

I’m the new local editor at Patch.com after being an old local editor at Patch somewhere when the decade hadn’t turned into the 2020s.

So why am I back?

Well, journalism was my career for 30 years. I started in the days when there was no Internet, no cell phones and basically no computers. I worked at places that produced print that wound up on your driveway while you were still sleeping.

It was pretty interesting — you actually had to talk to people. So that’s what I’m doing here. I’m starting a conversation with all of you in hopes of building a connection.

I’m so lucky to be a journalist again and so fortunate to do so with Patch, where community journalism really matters.

I’ve spent the past few years working in the digital world, but I’m very old school. That’s why Patch is perfect: It's old-school journalism using newfound technology. The perfect combination.

This is the perfect opportunity to get back into the rank and file too. My son, shown in the picture wearing his Patch T-shirt, is now in his second year of college. It was important for me not to keep moving my family for newspaper editor jobs and get him settled in school for a while.

And Bucks County is wonderful. I toe the line living in Montco but I’m always in Bucks.

I often do errands in Warminster and have ventured often to concerts at Parx Casino and trips to the Neshaminy Mall. I have a minor in History so being around Yardley and the Delaware River and Washington Crossing is pretty amazing in itself.

In the past few weeks, I've stopped in Tanner Bros. in Northampton and driven along Street Road through the Southamptons and into Feasterville.

There’s so much I have to learn about these towns. There’s so many people I want to meet. There's so much news I want to report.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any community insight and information and, of course, news tips!

This is our Patch!

It’s nice to chat with all of you! Looking forward to more communication and conversations.

Local Editor Dino Ciliberti can be reached by email at Dino.ciliberti@patch.com and by phone at 484-280-1126.