Today is the first day of a new daily online newspaper/directory for Monrovia, called MonroviaPatch.
The Patch nationwide network of smaller-town news websites is owned by AOL. The company has hired professional journalists at (from what I've read) very attractive salaries.
I am glad Patch is here. Journalism has had a rough time adjusting to the Internet world. International, national, and state news is, I think, well covered on the Internet, but the big, gaping hole has been small-town journalism. And what happens when you don't have small-town journalism? Bell! That's what happens.
So welcome Patch, and Editor Nathan McIntire.
My only concern about Patch (other than that it sounds like a gardening site) is that I don't understand how it will make money. (I'm not even *trying* to make money with MonroviaNow.com.) From what I've read I think it plans to sell national and local ads and position itself as a local directory, sort of like a yellow pages, in which merchants can upgrade their free listings for a fee. Things like this have been done in the past (I was involved in founding CitySearch.com) and it is very difficult with the costs of selling to local merchants. And if you add in the costs of a local editorial staff, I think it will be extremely difficult. But times have changed and maybe AOL has found a way.
Best wishes, Patch!
http://monrovia.patch.com/ - Brad Haugaard
Thanks Brad for the shout-out. We're going to do our best to cover everything that we can in this city. There's plenty of news and undoubtedly plenty of room for the both of us.
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