Yet in the short term, sites like Patch are a challenge, said Lincoln Millstein, senior vice president for digital media at Hearst Newspapers, speaking Wednesday at the Digital Hollywood conference in New York. 

 

He noted that Hearst owns many local newspapers in Connecticut, where Patch and the community site Main Street Connect have also set up shop. While Millstein doesn't see them as a long-term threat, in the near-term they are poaching journalists (in some cases paying them more) to cover local news.  

 

“We have clearly a bigger platform and over time the consumer will be better off ― but in the short term, it's a fight,” he said. 

 

That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it's made Hearst's local papers stay on top of their game. “I hear everybody say that the Patch business model is not sustainable and that Main Street Connect's business model is not sustainable. That may be true, but they're creating some disruption and challenging us to be better in the short term,” Millstein said. 

 

Hearst has responded by training journalists to report real-time on multiple platforms, he said. In addition to still having more journalists and a bigger platform, he said they have something the Patches of the world don't have: “We still have a newspaper.” 

 

Gannett is also counting on an established brand and local network of sites to hold its stake. 

 

“Local organizations are coming from a position of strength,” said Josh Resnik, vice president and general manager of Gannett Digital Network. “There's a tremendous brand resonance that these properties have with consumers in these markets.”

 

Gannett has successfully executed its own hyperlocal sites such as MomsLikeMe.com and HighSchoolSports.net by starting with a local brand and nationalizing it. Advertisers can advertise both locally and nationally across the sites,  Resnik explained in an interview.

 

In contrast, Patch and other community news networks launch from a central generator and pump their model out to local places. In their defense, it's obvious Patch is making an effort to recruit local journalists and partner with other news outlets in order to be a local voice of authority. 

 

When asked about Patch, Resnik noted that having a strong local presence is hard to create from scratch. “You just can't replace that overnight,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, Patch is hiring. Newspapers are not (at least not at the same rate). Can Patch prove to be a real threat? Only time will tell.