Cuyahoga Falls among 150 Patch sites losing local staffs

Cuyahoga Falls Patch and the other 16 Ohio Patch sites, along with about 150 of the 900 across the country, are being downsized by their owner, New York-based AOL. Gone will be the local staffing, reports editor John Deike. AOL laid off about half of its 1,000 employees in New York.

Coverage in recent weeks has shifted from local news to Northeast Ohio and national Patch items, defeating the original purpose of the Patch site, which was to provide intense local coverage that mainstream newspapers like the Beacon Journal, which beat Patch to the downsizing game, didn’t have the personnel to handle. And hope to lure advertisers from the mainstream papers to the Patch sites.

Deike wrote that Cuyahoga Falls Patch will remain open to anyone in the community who wants to share a blog, post an event, celebrate an announcement or promote a small business. Just don’t expect a news staff to be there to respond.

Dave Wilson, who had been downsized in 2006 after 18 years at the BJ, was the first Cuyahoga Falls Patch editor.

Former BJ reporter Kymberli Hagelberg was editor of the Fairlawn-Bath Patch.

To read the farewell funereal posting by Deike, click on http://cuyahogafalls.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/so-long-cuyahoga-falls--its-been-fun?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001&evar4=picks-1-post&newsRef=true