Tag Results for Aol

Boston Globe reporter Johnny Diaz today writes about Patch.com, the AOL-owned network of hyperlocal news sites that is (excuse me) sprouting up around the country.

As I noted earlier, Diaz writes that Patch is up against considerable competition in Greater Boston, principally from GateHouse Media's Wicked Local websites and the Boston Globe's Your Town sites — both of which, unlike Patch, are tied to established newspapers.

There are already 13 Patch sites in Massachusetts, with more to come.

After I posted my earlier Patch item, I heard from a Patch local editor (LE, in Patch-speak) who described working conditions that sound pretty challenging. Granted, community journalists in general work very hard for not much money. But the LE who wrote to me suggested that Patch takes it to another level.

The LE who contacted me asked that her name not be used, but gave me permission to publish her e-mail. I have verified that she is who she says she is. I don't consider this to be the last word, and I would welcome a response from Patch. The e-mail:

The working conditions for local editors at Patch sites raise the question of whether this model is sustainable or about whether this is the reality for journalists working in this new media age.

Basically, the job is 24/7 with so far little support in getting any kind of time off — nights, weekends, vacation days guaranteed under our AOL contract. (Some regional editors do try to help; others don't.) This time-off issue has become a major concern among local editors. You might hear about the 70-hour work weeks. Yes, 70 hours and more. It's a start-up and all that, and I knew it would be hard work going in. But what is becoming distressing is this sense that I can't get a break. I've worked in journalism for more than 20 years as a newspaper reporter, online editor, magazine editor, and I've never worked so much in my life.

Patch has a policy that it the local editor's responsibility to find our nights/weekend/vacation replacements. And we must pay that person out of our freelance budgets. I'm just three months into this job, and I've heard from LEs around the country that this task of finding your replacement can be daunting, because it is hard to find qualified journalists who have that sort of time to do a vacation fill-in — who who will do it for what Patch pays its freelancers. I've been hearing that LEs who have been around longer, up to a year, are starting to question whether the job is worth it.

And, it's not just being a reporter, but it's also being a city editor/assignment editor/managing editor/copy editor, and it's handling freelance payments (and freelance payment troubleshooting), doing videos, monitoring calender and event listings, doing some of our own marketing, and even HR. It seems the business model of this organization is to add tasks, traditionally handled by others in other organizations, to the plate of the local editors. More recently, I've been wondering if it would be possible, time-wise, to do the kind of enterprise journalism I would like.

Maybe I should be grateful I have a job and stop griping.

The media-watch vultures have begun to circle over MSNBC weeknights at 8 p.m., anticipating that the show widely considered to be the great liberal counterbalance to Fox News will soon be a bloated carcass.

Jeff Bercovici, the media guy for Aol Daily Finance, says Olberman's ratings in the 25-54 demographic have tanked over the last year, down 44 percent in January from the same period in 2009. That column earned Bercovici an Olbermann blast during his Worst Person in the World segment, in which Olbermann inexplicably called Daily Finance a "right wing site."

Olbermann also countered with some numbers of his own, insisting that his 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. "Countdown" broadcasts were both up in January over December and that his 8 p.m. show still owned a substantial lead over CNN and HLN. Olbermann didn't mention Fox's ratings, probably because the "The O'Reilly Factor" has more than three times his audience among 25-54 year olds.

But it's not all about the numbers. Several commentators have written lately that Olbermann's over-the-top histrionics are getting tiresome - the latest example being his thinly-supported rant about U.S. Senator-elect Scott Brown.

The rant - in which Olbermann branded Brown  "an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees" - earned Olbermann the Jon Stewart treatment.

Adding insult to injury, Stewart will be bumping up the ratings of Olbermann's Fox rival for the next two nights, making a must-see-TV appearance on O'Reilly.