Patch Makes Big Jump Up in Network Readership

The Patch network, AOL’s platform of more than 850 hyperlocal news, information and engagement sites, is now the fourth largest regional/local network, more than tripling its UV traffic between December 2010 and December 2011. The information is based on comScore data released this week.

Avon Patch was launched in December of 2010 and has enjoyed significant growth since. It is one of 17 growing Patch locations in the Northeast Ohio including Avon Lake, Westlake and Lakewood.

In addition, in December 2011, the Patch network showed a 5 percent traffic bump over November (9.9M UVs versus 9.5M UVs), bucking the trend of seasonal declines in comScore’s local news and information category.

Yahoo finance reported the trend Jan. 10 and Patch brass said the news of growth was gratifying.

 “Given that the average Patch site is just over a year old, we couldn’t be happier with the traffic growth we’ve shown to date,” Warren Webster, president of Patch Media, commented. “We are incredibly proud of the role we play in our communities every day - and of the consistent positive feedback we receive from our users - so seeing this rise in traffic is very gratifying for our entire team.”

The other properties in the category are

• Yelp (#1);
• CityGrid (#2),
• Yahoo! Local (#3),
• CBS Local (#5)

The jump proved significant for Patch, which ranked #10 in the category in December of 2010.

Patch currently has 863 sites in 22 states plus Washington, D.C., with more than 1,000 professional journalists managing those sites and over 13,000 bloggers contributing content. In recent weeks, Patch launched its first three Patch Latino sites and its coverage of the 2012 election season across its primary-state Patches and beyond.