Akronist finds its own patch

It looks like the Patch locally-produced community websites will have competition in Akron -- Akronist, as in Akron Citizen Journalist.

As with the Patch web sites, Akronist -- headed by Chris Miller -- produces local stories, including seedlings at Crown Point, Oriana House residents discussing parenting and custody issues with a magistrate and a Women’s Endowment Fund of Akron Community Foundation grant. Akronist and Patch fill a void left when daily newspapers like the Beacon Journal decimated their staffs and no longer can cover every hamlet in their circulation areas with a reporter.

It's today's equivalent of the local weekly newspapers that once proliferated.

It was created with the help of a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Former BJ staffers Kymberli Hagelberg, the editor, Dave Wilson, Sarah Vradenburg and David Lee Morgan, Jr. are involved with the Bath-Fairlawn Patch online community news gatherers.

Click on the headline to go to the Akronist web site.