REAL ESTATE TALK with MARY ANN CATCH THE PATCH Interviews David Mills
Catch the Patch Mary Ann Interviews David Mills, Associate Regional Editor Patch.com David Mills has worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers from 1977 to 1993 and mostly with the Contra Costa Times. From 1993 -2010, he was a producer at CBS channel five in San Francisco, CA. From 2010 to present day, as an associate regional editor of Patch.com, he currently oversees and helps to write, edit, and oversees help for 21 East Bay sites.
Formerly from San Diego, David spent his childhood in San Diego, Hawaii, and New Orleans as his father was in the Navy. He earned his Bachelors of Art degree in Communications and a Minor in Political Science from Cal State Chico in 1977. His wife Mary has been his companion for 36 years, and he has two exceptional married daughters, Melinda and Catherine.
We began with discussing how long patch.com has been in existence, and he indicated 5 years in the east coast and 3 years in the east bay. Since February 2010, Danville Patch was the very first patch in the East Bay, and noted that I was one of the early adopters and early advertisers on Patch.com. One of the first things I noticed was the growth from the east to west coast since I came on board, and from then then it’s grown exponentially at an incredible pace. David indicated that there are now about 1000 Patch sites across the country.
Furthermore, he indicated that Patch is owned by AOL, and that the idea for Patch came from Tim Armstrong, Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of AOL.com. The story goes that he was at a school event with his daughter, and Tim’s thought was “This is a wonderful event, how come no one is covering it?” As a result, Tim Armstrong answered his own question by creating the venue we now know as Patch.com. The AOL owned company got its start back east, brought to the west, and is now expanding to the middle of the country in Missouri, Michigan, the South and South East. Patch specializes in suburban towns of between 40 to 80 thousand people, but there are some bigger exceptions like Berkeley and Fremont. However, more than town info, they look for towns with readership and a big business base in real estate is an essential part of it.
I mentioned that I got my start on Patch as a commenter to the blogs that were posted, but added that I love progressive thinkers and I liken patch to being like a Facebook for communities. Because community people now have a voice, that’s how I began. I also commented that I love progressive thinkers. Don’t all wonderful ideas start when you identify a need? David replied that they think outside the box and you can also see what’s coming ahead. He also commented on reading Life Magazine (Top 100 People in History) and how progressive thinkers are people, who think differently, see things coming, and he thinks that Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, in this instance is just that!
I asked if Patch is projecting a growth cap or is it going to continue growing? David said there’s growth as long as there is readership and towns where Patch executives think that there are opportunities for more sites. Patch sites will continue to grow more and more. With that I added the big success of Patch is that it is interactive, and David said that is one of the big draws to Patch, and their mission is to try and do something old and something new at the same time.
The old is having a local editor and bringing back community news. When he started with newspapers in the late 1970’s, right after Watergate scandal, they were still very viable. Newspapers at the time covered local community news. One example was David’s first job for the Contra Costa Times; he covered the city of Pittsburg, which included City Hall, School District, and PG&E. Reporters covered one town and they had lots and lots of reporters on staff. As a result, they could drill down and cover stuff that was very local and relevant to those communities. Unfortunately, newspapers don’t have the number of employees they use to, and now one reporter usually covers 4 to 6 towns. They just can’t cover the news at what he calls the neighborhood level. Patch and its sites are trying to bring that back by having a site for each town.
However, the new thing in this day and age is the demand for people to have sites that are interactive, and I indicated that is one of the strongest components of Patch. David indicated yes, it is and because of Facebook and the Internet in general. People expect websites to be interactive, and that is one of the keystones of Patch sites. Speaking of interactive catch my interview with David Mills by going to my link click or copy & paste below:
https://www.box.com/s/wdsw492sj30wvmz1uu5v
By Mary Ann Cadorna
Copyright 5/18/13
Mary Ann Cadorna J. Rock cliff Realtors®
15 Railroad Ave Danville, CA 94526
CDPE DRE01345274 925-286-1888
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