Patch Launches Blogger Platform

Those 8,000 bloggers Patch said they were going to “hire” are apparently ready to go, because Arianna Huffington just posted – on a Patch in Minnesota no less – that the network has launched “Local Voices,” its blogging platform.

The post contains a lot of words praising Patch before getting to the point, that the bloggers can be anyone, and the Local Voices program will make Patch even better:

Local Voices will complement Patch’s original reporting, allowing you, as a member of the community, to speak up and speak out to your neighbors – whether they’re across town, a block away, or two doors down. Local Voices reflects our belief that community residents feel deeply about their local issues, and deserve the chance to share their thoughts on issues great and small.

Obviously Huffington is hoping that the formula she used with The Huffington Post works for Patch as well. The problem, of course, is that a Patch in Fridley, Minnesota, doesn’t exactly offer the kind of exposure that HuffPo did. But hey, if the writers for Local Voices are indeed high school students, like Patch’s Editor-in-Chief Brian Farnham says they can be, at least they won’t have money to sue one day.

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