Local Patch Media Network Faces Shutdowns, Layoffs This Week

America Online’s network of hyperlocal Patch websites faces shutdowns and layoffs this week which could shutter as many as 300 of it sites nationwide and leave up to 550 members of it workforce unemployed.

It is not yet known which of eight local sites will be closed or sold. Patch has separate sites covering Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre, Arcadia, San Marino, South Pasadena, the Glendale-Montrose-La Crescenta area, and La Cañada Flintridge.

Patch was a pet project of AOL’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong, who championed the high-reaching project to roll out 1,000 local websites nationwide over three years in a bid to make his brand of  hyperlocal, web-based journalism a viable business model.

The Wall Street Journal said Friday that “the changes will radically curtail the scope of the nation’s most ambitious experiment in online local news.”

Media reports indicate that AOL spent over $300 million attempting to make Patch profitable.  Investors have complained about the drag on AOL’s overall profitability caused by Patch’s continuing losses.

The possible shutdowns of local Patch websites comes close on the heels of another local media failure, the closure by the Los Angeles Times of the Pasadena Sun newspaper on June 29.