On Monday Patch, a very well-funded, NYC based hyper-local startup with a very good team launched three NJ sites on their platform. The sites are in Millburn, Maplewood, and South Orange. While no one covering tech or the local media space seemed to have noticed, someone did. Barristanet, one of the first and best local blogs, which covers Montclair and Glen Ridge, wrote a post about them. The post was a bit condescending and defensive and her readers let her have it. But, the point is, her readers let her have it. Patch looks good. It has a navigable interface, original reporting from an editor and contributors, reblogged news (don't love the way they are linking back), restaurant listings, town info for services, a place for organizations to post opportunities, etc. It is a bit of americantowns, metroblogs, outside.in, and topix rolled up. It has maps. It is sort of like what a newsy chamber of commerce site should actually be like. Everytown should have one. Whether that creates a hyperlocal winner is another question.
It made me think of backfence, a really interesting hyperlocal startup from a few years ago, so I did a little digging and found a great post by Mark Potts, one of its co-founders, about why it failed. If Patch can learn from his mistakes then maybe they have a chance. In fact, reading his post and looking at their sites makes me feel that they have studied it. They have a tough battle in a tight space where so many have and are in the process of, failing.
Barristanet asked her readers for ideas and I would suggest that she also read Pott's post. She does so much brilliantly, but there might be a few things that it might spark to keep her ahead of a well funded machine. Who knows if Patch is coming to Montclair, but they are her neighbor and competitor in the local ad space so she is right to be on guard. But she has the community engagement and that is the key.
A small sidebar - I see that Jeff Jarvis is an adviser to both Patch and to Outside.in, which are in some ways going after the space. I guess he is just doing What Google Would Do.
