Southeast Michigan's network of Patch community news websites, which grew to 30 since mid-2010, now has no editors.
After months of staff shrinkage and combined sites, layoffs came down Wednesday from an investment firm that bought the media property from AOL two weeks ago.
Chris Gautz of Crain's reports the local impact of job losses from coast to coast:
Editors at Patch, which includes 30 hyper local news sites in Southeast Michigan, received word this morning of companywide layoffs that have put the news sites they managed at a standstill.
According to one source, who took part in a conference call explaining the layoffs this morning, all of the roughly 15 employees in Michigan were laid off today.
It was unclear what will happen to the sites following the layoffs, but editors in Michigan lost the ability to post to the sites today, the source said.
Dismissed editors get their yearly AOL bonus, accrued vacation time and two months’ severance, according to the TechCrunch blog.
Edward Cardenas, founding editor of St. Clair Shores Patch for more than three years, posts a farewell music video on his Facebook page. It shows Bob Marley singing "'Three Little Birds," with the lyrics "'Don't worry about a thing, / 'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."
Another victim, editor Joni Hubred-Golden of Farmington-Farmington Hills Patch, posts: "I am nothing but grateful to have been part of such a grand experiment and to have worked with our amazing Michigan team."
National journalism blogger Jim Romenesko quotes an insider as saying "the layoffs were 80 to 90 percent of Patchers.”
The move is the latest in a series of setbacks for the unprofitable network. Last August, AOL announced it would close many Patch sites and lay off staff at all levels. In an all-staff conference call, CEO Tim Armstrong announced that the Patch sites would shrink from 900 to 600.
On Jan. 15 this month, a non-media company called Hale Global bought AOL's stake.
"These layoffs do not come as much of a surprise," Matt Burns writes at TechCrunch.
Patch was burning through money and Hale Global wouldn’t have purchased it without a plan to turn it around. Laying off hundreds of employees is a quick way to shore up the balance sheet. . . .
Patch had long been a sore spot on AOL’s balance sheet. The outlet failed to become profitable after Aol acquired it in 2009. Patch is estimated to have cost Aol between $200 million and $300 million to run.
-- Alan Stamm
