This summer, Patch will be partnering with the Dow Jones News Fund to provide their summer interns with a unique experience: Interns will complete a week-long training program at Western Kentucky University before heading back to their prospective posts across the country. Not only are travel expenses and housing covered, interns get an hourly wage and will receive a $1000 scholarship upon completing the program.

All in all, about 40 students will be selected in 18 states. The program will have two start dates: early June through August and mid-June through the first week of September. “[We're looking for] someone who’s really passionate about community journalism,” Andi Morrison, college recruiter at Patch, told 10,000 Words. “That kind of entrepreneurial spirit is the first thing I really look for.” To apply, students should have some online journalism experience, whether it’s writing for campus media or freelancing for a local news outlet. Read more

Patch.com, AOL’s hyperlocal news experiment, is rolling out a new site today. In true new media fashion, the company designed the mobile site first, and the new format places heavy emphasis on social elements.

I got a preview of it on Friday from co-founder and CEO Jon Brod, chief content officer Rachel Feddersen and creative director Abel Lenz, who enthusiastically introduced the site as a shift from the soap-box model to a town square model. “This is a platform for communities to better organize day to day life,” said Feddersen, “we’re about making lives in towns better.”

So what’s different about the new Patch? According to Brod, it’s “the marriage of Journalism with a big J and the social elements of a community platform.” Read more

Patch has gotten somewhat of a bad reputation in journalism circles — remember when USC journalism professor Robert Hernandez asked Tim Armstrong if Patch is “evil” at 2010′s Online News Association conference?  For those of you who have been living under a rock, Patch is AOL’s local news initiative that now has more than 500 sites in 20 different states.  Some newspapers feel threatened by a big tech company, some say it’s a waste of money, some say Patch is exploitive of its staff– but maybe it’s just too early to tell whether Patch is really going to make a big impact in hyperlocal news.

Despite the criticisms, I’ve lately noticed a few things that Patch is doing right to serve its communities. So whether you disagree with Patch or not, there’s a a thing or two you can learn from them about transparency and openness. Read more