Pros
Flexible schedule, although that usually means you're available to cover Saturday night fires and to work weekends and holidays. The best thing was working out of my home.
Cons
Management has no idea what its doing. Initiatives were flavor-of-the-month, usually introduced days before we were expected to begin them and usually falling far short of management's (and editors') expectations. Lots of bad, bad ideas foisted on local editors who aren't trusted to know the communities they cover and what those readers want and need from Patch. Management pays lots of lip service to open communication, but it was all top down. The latest initiative--whacking freelance budgets and going to a more aggregated, UGC format--could be the death knell for Patch.