Mathematics, Scientific Hypothesis, the written word, the wheel, fire, electricity, the light bulb, the transistor, the theory of relativity; the Internet is one of those (and there are certainly a lot more) things that can be described as “disruptive technology”. From those, many industries have been spawned. AOL (America OnLine) was one such attempt to capitalize on a nascent technology that allowed lots of computer networks to interconnect and to communicate. And then AOL decided to “outnewspaper” the dying dead wood newspapers by being hyperlocal and hyperquick and pushed Patch.com to be a national entity. Unfortunately, things have not quite gone as well as Arianna Huffington’s parent company would have liked – between 300-400 of these local sites are being shuttered.
Here in NH, at least from when I looked this afternoon, it is not clear if any sites are going to stay or be closed. No, didn’t email or call anyone but I found this interesting and it may be an indication of “your” Patch will still be active. Went to the main Patch.com and from the right hand menu, selected New Hampshire and this is what showed up:
Result: Amherst, Bedford, Concord, Exeter, Hampton-North Hampton, Longonderry, Merrimack, Milford, Nashua, Portsmouth, Salem, and Windham.
But when I put in my zipcode, I got a different result:
Yeah, quite a few less: Concord, Bedford, Exeter, Portsmouth, Londonderry, Amherst
