At the Intersection of Hyper-Local Digital and Regional Magazine Publishers: Imagine having more than 20 competitors spring up into your market over the course of the last two years. Now picture these competitors being backed by one of the largest digital media institutions on the continent. Welcome to the new city and regional magazine market. AOL’s collection of hyper-local news sites known as Patch have been popping up around the country at an incredibly quick rate, with more than 908 sites across 22 states which garner a total of more than 14 million monthly unique visitors. Patch sites cover all things local, plus comprehensive listings of businesses, events and more. The idea of starting a potential turf war with hyper-local sites over coveted digital ad dollars isn’t a reality—not yet at least—but city and regional publishers are still preparing themselves for the digital marketplace, and Patch is making an equally aggressive push.
