I joined patch as a freelancer at a very good rate of pay per article/photo feature (even more than I had made previously writing political columns for a freebie hardcopy newspaper in a nearby city). This only lasted for a month, when my pay per submission was reduced by 65%. Bait and switch? I have also been mystified that my editor is unwilling to share readership numbers -- and give us some numbers showing how many people are reading particular articles or photo features. Patch seems very reluctant to go out and obtain local advertising -- how can it continue without local ads? There seems to be a movement away from hard news and "meaty" columns and articles, and toward fluff stuff like activity calendars, "things to do," and bloggers, who of course Patch doesn't pay. Also, Patches seem to be using more and more news from other nearby Patches, when it's supposed to be a very local publication. And sometimes they use material from press releases which has no interest for local readers. It seems that anything Patch can get virtually for free, they will use. And finally, as some others have said, the editors keep getting hit with "flavor of the month" edicts from Patch hqs. -- which has them making this change, and that change, and changes on top of changes. Myself, I'm being cut back on my number of submissions, so I'm looking for more work elsewhere.
