The New York Times has an article today offering an overview of AOL Patch: AOL Bets on Hyperlocal News, Finding Progress Where Many Have Failed
The article makes reference to New Rochelle Patch stealing content from Talk of the Sound then lying about it repeatedly.
But several plagiarism cases have tarnished Patch during its brief history. One journalist posted a photo from a rival site, and then denied it, while two freelancers published articles that were at least partly copied from other sources.
A person familiar with the matter, who could not speak on the record about personnel matters, said they were all fired.
Traffic on individual sites is low; former editors say that the average post attracts just 100 views and that they considered 500 page views a wild success.