A Patch Milestone: 1 Million Articles Published

Brian Farnham is the editor-in-chief of Patch. Here are excerpts from a blog post he wrote about Patch publishing its 1 millionth piece of content this week.

One of the benefits of an online business is having access to a lot of numbers. The Internet runs on computers and computers run on numbers, so everything you do can be counted, usually in five different ways.

And when your online business is words, stories, conversations and information — like it is at Patch — the numbers can get interesting. For instance, across our 850-plus sites, we publish a new piece of original content every 12 seconds. That stat persistently wows me, because it speaks to the work our nearly 1,000 editors put in every day. 

But we recently encountered a big number. One million. As in, Patch has now produced one million articles. That adds up to more than 382 million words. All that in just 30 months, and with more than 600 of our sites having launched in the past eight months. (Another number we love? 391. That's how many articles we've published about lost pets — and in many cases, we've heard that our stories helped reunite those pets with their owners. Woof.)

For the record, the one millionth article was this one, from local editor Katie Dolac, about a man in Dunedin, Fla., who honored the memory of his late mother by continuing her virtuous habit of donating backpacks to a local Catholic school. This story is pure Patch. By that I mean it's a small, meaningful story that goes to the heart of our mission: connecting users with their communities, and with each other.

Of course, we also produce bigger, more broadly impactful journalism as well, such as our coverage of the , the plight of a  who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge or the ongoing saga of local law enforcement officers arrested on multiple felony charges. All of our editors are due a big congrats on reaching this epic milestone.  Here's to the next million.