Patch.com's PR Nightmare

By Kyle S. Reyes, Director of Marketing for Carter Chevrolet and Mazda of Manchester

A couple of weeks ago I put up a post that I was sure would get me fired.  It was about Carter Chevrolet and Mazda of Manchester's involvement in the community.

Surprisingly, I still have a job.

But after this piece, I may no longer have a blog.

Here's the thing.  At the seminars I've been running for the Downtown Manchester Special Service District and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, I haven't been shy about using examples of local and/or big businesses to teach business owners about how to handle different situations.  
I've also been a HUGE promoter and supporter of hyper-local journalism - specifically Patch.  I think Dave Moran, Managing Editor, does a spectacular job of being in many different places seemingly at the same time.  He's kind of like Houdini.  With a lot less money. 

But Patch has dropped the ball in an EPIC way.

So they roll out this new site that's giving all of you a headache.  And I'm thinking to myself, "this HAS to be a beta test", right?  But no, I don't think so.  I'm thinking this was more of an experiment to see how many people they could drive away from the site.  

Maybe they were hacked by the J.I.?  I mean, there HAS to be an explanation here.

I used to hear from people how wonderful Patch was.  What a sleek and easy to use layout there was.  How easy it was to engage and interact.  

Now, all I hear about is how much people hate it.  How user UN-friendly it is.  How features and links are constantly broken.  Nobody's commenting.  Nobody's reading.  It's like walking into the most popular restaurant in town and finding that everyone has moved on to somewhere else.  

Yesterday, I received the Windsor newsletter in my inbox - more than 80 times.  I like local news.  I don't like it THAT much.

As a marketing and public relations executive, I have wonder - what the HECK was Patch thinking?  Didn't they test out the sites before launching?  Did they do focus groups?  Have they taken ANY of the feedback into consideration?  And, um, do they ever even look at their Google analytics?

It feels as if Patch now has an identity crisis.  The desire to marry journalism with a wanna-be social media platform is just failing, from what so many locals are telling me.  It's like when Michael Jordan tried to play baseball.  Kind of leaves everyone scratching their heads, ya know?

It seems nobody is getting responses from Patch on the feedback they're sending in.  It seems like they are all about people shooting video from their 90's cell phones.  What the heck is going on over there?

So, dear Patch.  I have a suggestion.  You have a public relations nightmare on your hands.  But I have a solution.

Tonight, the Downtown Manchester Special Service District is sponsoring a Downtown Mixer.  It comes complete with free food, inexpensive booze, and more importantly - a presentation by Ann Baldwin, Owner of Baldwin Media Marketing.  She's basically the PR Guru of the East Coast.  

It takes places from 5pm-7:30pm at 30 Bissell Street in Manchester.  Ann will teach you how to handle the PR nightmare.  And you can have a drink with everyone and say "whoops".

Then again - maybe the wine is a bad idea.  Because I'm thinking perhaps a little too much alcohol was involved when Patch decided this new site would be a good idea.