I first considered writing a column about the demise of Patch last August when AOL Inc. announced it was shutting down most of its community websites.
I mentioned this to a couple friends not in the newspaper business, and each gave me a puzzled look. “Patch?” they said. “Never heard of it.”
One thought it was a website for people who liked to quilt; another was sure it had something to do with rabbits.
Just in case you, too, never heard of Patch, it was a network of 900 or so websites around the country that posted local stories written by employees and viewers, including local Patch sites in Land O’ Lakes, Lutz and New Tampa.
The Patch concept piggy-backed what we do best at The Laker/Lutz News — giving readers stories about local people, events and issues that are only found in their weekly community newspaper. We call this hyperlocal news.
Patch offered this same hyperlocal formula, but in a digital format. And while Patch’s stories, photos and video clips were often very good, most of its websites never drew enough viewers to justify selling ads to local businesses.
Patch failed not because of poor content, but because not enough people went to its website. There was never enough traffic to create the momentum needed to generate advertising dollars to cover its expenses, much less make a profit.
So why was Patch unable to pull people like you to its websites when its content was much like the stories you’re reading in this week’s Laker or Lutz News?
We believe the answer is so simple that it has been overlooked.
The stories Patch covered and we write about are not urgent enough for you to search for them online. You’re just fine getting your community news in a weekly newspaper delivered to your home.
We know from several research studies in our industry that only 25 percent of regular readers of community newspapers go to their paper’s website. And when they do, it’s just once a month on average.
This means if you’re reading this column, you have probably never visited our website at www.LakerLutzNews.com. And my staff and I are OK with that because we never stopped believing in the power of the printed word.
I believe egos get in the way of many publishers and journalists who incorrectly assume their stories are so important that they must be posted on their websites as soon as they are edited. They believe readers are as consumed as they are with getting news 24/7.
Here at The Laker/Lutz News, we accept what the research verifies — that you like getting your community news the traditional way — in a newspaper delivered to your driveway that you can read when you choose.
Those of you who do visit our website mostly go there to get digital links to stories you’ve already read in print. Or, you may be a seasonal resident wanting to keep up with the news here when you’re back north. Or, you may want to share it with relatives who live elsewhere.
We think of our website as a service to readers who want to link our stories to their websites or Facebook pages. We’ve made it easy to navigate with a searchable archive of local stories going back to 2009.
Our stories are posted Thursday morning, the day after you get The Laker or Lutz News at your home. I’ve never understood why most newspapers do the opposite —post stories to their websites before their readers have a chance to read them in their printed product. From my perspective, it’s like competing against yourself and cannibalizing your primary product.
Which takes me full circle back to Patch. I believe Patch faced a daunting challenge from its beginning because AOL ignored what research has told us for years — that people seldom go online to seek hyperlocal news.
It’s not that news websites are never viable. Certainly national websites for newspapers like USA Today and the Washington Post attract readers because they break important national and international stories. Even daily newspapers can have a strong Web following, especially for sports coverage where fans demand the immediacy of game results.
But the kinds of stories Patch posted and we write about are not crucial to your daily routine. Most of our stories are not things you need to know about immediately. Rather they are stories you enjoy reading about when you have the time.
Much has been written about newspapers being dinosaurs — that our industry is on its way to extinction because of the Internet. The Patch experiment proves that prediction false.
The Laker/Lutz News has never been as well read as they are today. People have an innate yearning to know what’s happening in their community, and will forever get a thrill when they see the name or photo of someone they know in the newspaper.
And there’s a good chance when they do, they will likely cut the story out, stick it on their refrigerator and mail a copy to friends and relatives.
Try doing that with a digital version.
