About Us
What is Patch?
Simply put, Patch is an innovative way to find out about, and participate in, what's going on near you.
We're a community-specific news, information and engagement platform driven by passionate and experienced new media professionals. Patch is revolutionizing the way neighbors connect with each other, their communities, and the national conversation.
We want to be the most trusted, comprehensive, and relevant news and information resource in your community. What can you do on Patch?
- Keep up with news and events
- Check out photos and videos from around town
- Learn more about local businesses and the people behind them
- Participate in discussions
- Share your perspectives via our Local Voices blogging platform
- Submit your own announcements, photos, and reviews
Who's Behind Patch?
Patch is run by professional editors, photographers, videographers, and salespeople who live in the regions they serve, and is supported by a great team in our New York City headquarters. Patch also gets advice from our Advisory Board and from many members of the community.
We look forward to meeting you and hearing your stories. If you see us around town, don't be afraid to say hi and tell us what you want to see on Patch!
Where You Come In
We hope that our sites will strengthen communities and improve the lives of their residents, but we can't do it without you. We've built Patch so that you have plenty of opportunities to comment on stories, share your opinions, post photos and announcements, and add events to the community calendar. So get to it! And if you're a business owner who wants to be listed, just let us know.
Giving Back
You can't truly serve a community unless you provide the help it needs most, which is why giving back is so important to us. We do it as part of our coverage — in a dedicated space that lets local charities and volunteers find each other — and with a program called "Give 5," through which we donate advertising space to charitable organizations and contribute our own time as volunteers. Want to know more? Email us at give5@patch.com.
The People Behind Patch
Management Team
Jon Brod, CEO and Co-Founder
Jon has spent nearly 20 years in media and technology at companies such as Polar Capital Group (Pres & COO), IAC (SVP and GM of Portals Group), Ask Jeeves (SVP and member of Exec Committee) and Interactive Search Holdings (first employee and COO; sold to Ask Jeeves in 2004).
Jon started his career at the NBA (not playing, sadly) where he established NBA Canada and launched the Raptors and Grizzlies franchises.
Jon's two non-Patch passions (Patch-ions?) are his family and singing. He can frequently be found at a museum or zoo with his way-out-of-his-league wife and delicious children, and very occasionally at an open mic or karaoke night. Jon graduated, cum laude, from Bowdoin College. Jon also sits on the Board of Directors of the Online Publishers Association and is a Director of Action America.
Warren Webster, Co-Founder
Warren began his media career in 1997 at Morris Communications, where he held various executive positions, including Group General Manager of nine local newspapers, magazines and websites between Aspen and Vail, Colorado. Since then he has been Vice President of Material Media, publisher of niche content sites including Babble.com, and Director of Magazine Publishing for Gannett in Westchester, NY, where he was responsible for 40+ local and regional titles. Warren is an active member of several industry and charitable organizations, is a member of the Media Council at The Paley Center, and is a frequent speaker about the local digital space. He graduated from St. Lawrence University with a BA in English.
Warren grew up in a small Patch town on Cape Cod and would almost always prefer to be on a boat. In his earlier life he worked as a sailboat captain based on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard, and when he’s not at Patch he can be found somewhere around 18° 19' 60 N, 64° 37' 0 W.
Steven Kalin, President & Chief Operating Officer
Steven oversees Patch’s day-to-day operations, including editorial, sales and analytics.
Most recently, Steven was COO of Westwood One, one of the largest syndicators of programming to the radio industry, and President of the Metro Traffic division, a leading provider of traffic and local content to radio stations and online providers. Before Westwood One, Steven was COO and a Board member of Rodale, a global health and wellness publisher of brands including Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Runner’s World. Prior to that, Steven was COO of Medscape, an online site for medical professionals and also held positions with ESPN and McKinsey & Co.
Steven received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics and Computer Science from Brown University. He was previously a Board member of The United Way of Lehigh Valley.
Steven lives in a Patch town with his wife and three children.
Rachel Feddersen, Chief Content Officer
Rachel is the Chief Content Officer at Patch. She joined the team in February 2012 from The Parenting Group, where she most recently served as Editorial Director, Digital Content, Strategy and Design, overseeing all digital development of the Parenting, Babytalk and Conceive brands and their online extensions. Under her leadership, the sites achieved record-breaking growth and won numerous industry honors and awards. Rachel was named Media Industry Newsletter’s Digital Content Strategist of the Year in 2010 and was inducted into the Media Industry Hall of Fame in 2011. Creating and editing websites since the mid-1990s, Rachel began her career as a journalist, with a focus on business, health and political reporting, and also served as one of the original six editors at Metrobeat (later CitySearch), a pioneer in the local space. Rachel earned a Master of Art & Technology degree from NYU as well as a BA in English from Amherst College.
Rachel lives in the fabulous Patch town of Montclair, NJ, with her husband and two young sons, and has discovered that the secret of happiness is a backyard garden, a good running route, and getting the coffee ready the night before.
Mark Josephson, SVP of Revenue and Marketing
Mark leads Patch’s efforts to develop and execute all revenue streams, including local, regional and national channels. Mark also oversees the sales and corporate marketing functions for Patch, bringing an extensive background in marketing and brand management.
Prior to Patch, Mark was CEO of Outside.in, which was acquired by Patch in 2011. Outside.in was a leading hyperlocal platform that organized the web around neighborhoods for consumers, publishers and advertisers across the country. Prior to Outside.in, Mark was President and CMO of Seevast Corp, which builds and operates proprietary and publisher ad networks.
Before that, Mark held various positions at About.com, including General Manager and Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. Mark was a founding member of Cone Interactive's new media practice, where he managed marketing and communications for pioneering Internet media businesses, including About.com and iVillage.com. Mark graduated from Skidmore College with a BA with honors in psychology.
Mark was born in a Patch town and now lives in another Patch town with his wife and three boys.
Leigh Zarelli Lewis, SVP, Strategy & Business Development
Leigh joined Patch in October 2012 and has over 20 years experience in corporate strategy, new business development, M&A, product management and marketing. Most recently Leigh held roles at The Walt Disney Company as VP of Emerging Businesses in the Corporate Strategy & Business Development group, as well as VP of Product Development at Disney Interactive. Leigh joined Disney from IAC, where she was a Co-founder and VP of the Gifts.com business.
Leigh’s early career highlights include several years as a team leader at Bain & Company, focusing on strategic initiatives for Fortune 500 clients in the media/entertainment and consumer goods industries as well as several years in credit card marketing at JP Morgan Chase.
Leigh holds an MBA in Strategic Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Government from Dartmouth College.
Leigh hails from the Patch town of Scotch Plains, NJ and currently lives in NYC with her husband, very young daughter and finicky cat.
Melanie Pereira, VP of Finance
Melanie has spent nearly 15 years in the media industry developing strategic financial plans, managing operational processes and leading high-performance teams. Prior to joining Patch, Melanie held roles as VP Finance & Editorial Operations at The Newsweek Daily Beast as well as at MTV Networks International in the Consumer Products & Program Syndication divisions. She previously held various financial management positions at NBC Universal, where she started off with the Owned & Operated Stations and then moved to CNBC & CNBC International.
Melanie holds an MBA in International Business as well as a BA in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She spends time outside the office as an adjunct professor, teaching Digital Financials as part of NYU’s Masters of Science in Publishing program. Melanie hails from Cape Cod but has called NYC her home for 15 years. Her passion for globe-trotting has recently been curtailed with the arrival of her son and soon-to-be second. She anxiously looks forward to returning to travel and sharing all the world has to offer with her new, little travel companions.
Laura Campbell, Head of People Team
Laura leads the People Team at Patch, and spends every day growing our culture and most valuable Patch asset – our people! Prior to Patch, Laura worked at AOL as a lead HR for Advertising.com/Sales, Search, Local & Ventures, corporate groups, The Huffington Post Media Group, and AOL Media. She has also led the HR function at Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People, in Philadelphia, where she supported an international retail force, and all corporate functions. Before her HR life, Laura served as a law clerk for the Honorable Victor J. DiNubile at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Pace University and a Juris Doctor from Widener University School of Law.
Laura lives in the Patch neighborhood of Park Slope (Brooklyn!) with her husband and 2-year-old son. Laura reads non-stop, is obsessed with the This American Life podcast, is a champion Trivial Pursuit player, and makes a mean apple pie.
Sophia Fregosi, Director of Recruiting
Sophia has spent the last 11 years recruiting and managing teams for Fox Interactive Media, TV Guide, Disney ABC Media Networks, Time Inc and Accenture, where she has helped organizations scale and driven talent pool development for key business build-outs. She recently relocated back to NYC after spending a year in Los Angeles, and contends that there’s no place as spontaneous as New York. A native of Boston, Sophia is a card carrying Red Sox and Patriots fan. She lives in Manhattan with her fiancé, Shane, and her dog Poopsie. Sophia holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Classical Studies from Hamilton College.
Rob Platzer, VP of Technology
Most recently, as CTO of NYC based startup, Outside.in, Rob led the development of a search based platform to massively scale the aggregation, analysis and delivery of hyperlocal news and information.
Prior to Outside.in, Rob was the Director of Application Development at Digital Railroad where he spent the majority of his 'hands on' time innovating in the area of image search while leading the development team to build and maintain an online archival, sales and marketing platform for professional photographers. Rob has previously led application development at HUGE and Intrasphere where he was responsible for the strategic direction of technology for clients such as iVillage/NBC, Pfizer and Scholastic. A veteran of the New York City start-up scene, Rob developed his early passion for innovative technology and scalable web based architectures at BlueTip and Nicholson, NY.
Rob holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Rob is an active member of the nautical community around the port town of Northport, Long Island and holds a current United States Coast Guard OUPV captain’s license.
Advisory Board
Phil Meyer
Phil Meyer is Professor Emeritus in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was inducted into the North Carolina Hall of Fame in Journalism in the spring of 2008. He joined the Journalism School in 1981 and served as Knight Chair in Journalism Professor from 1993-2008. Prior to joining the school, he held a number of reporter and research positions at various media outlets.
He has won numerous awards including the 2005 Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for Research About Journalism (with Scott Maier). He was named a Fellow of Society of Professional Journalists in 2005. In 2004, the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication gave him its Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award. And in 2000 he received the American Association for Public Opinion Research Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement.
Meyer is the author of several books including The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age and Precision Journalism: A Reporter’s Introduction to Social Science Methods. Journalism Quarterly in 2000 listed this book as one of the 35 significant books of the 20th century in journalism and mass communication; and the American Association for Public Opinion Research, observing its 50th anniversary in 1996, listed it as one of 50 significant books on public opinion research.
He received his B.S. in technical journalism from Kansas State University and his M.A. in political science from the University of North Carolina.
Steven Berlin Johnson
Steven Berlin Johnson is a pioneer in the web world, as a co-founder of FEED, Plastic.com, and Outside.in, which was acquired by Patch in March of 2011. He also co-created Findings.com, which launched in late 2011. Steven was the 2009 Hearst New Media Professional-in-Residence at The Journalism School at Columbia University, and served for several years as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU’s Journalism School. He is a bestselling author of seven books, and won acclaim and a Newhouse School Mirror Award for his 2010 Time Magazine cover story, "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live."
Speaking of Steven's editorial prowess, check out this video based on Steven's book, Where Good Ideas Come From, which was named one of the best books of 2010 by The Economist.
Brian Farnham, Founding Editor-in-Chief
Brian was Editor-in-Chief of Time Out New York magazine before coming to Patch. Before that he worked for a variety of publications both online and off, including Details magazine, New York Magazine, and the old, dearly departed Sidewalk.com. He has written for numerous publications, from the New York Times magazine to Harper's Bazaar. He graduated from Bowdoin College and got an MFA in creative writing at Columbia University so he could put his novel in a drawer with distinction. He lives in Manhattan with his beautiful wife, adorable son, angelic daughter and the world's most dog-like cat. He’s proud as hell of what the Patch team has built.
Ken Paulson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the First Amendment Center
Ken Paulson is president and chief executive officer of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and in Washington, D.C.
Previously, Paulson served as the editor and senior vice president/news of USA Today. He is now a columnist on USA Today’s board of contributors, writing about First Amendment issues and the news media.
Throughout his career, Paulson has drawn on his background as both a journalist and lawyer, serving as the editor or managing editor of newspapers in five different states.
He also is past-president of the American Society of News Editors, the nation’s largest organization of news media leaders.
Paulson also was the host of the Emmy-honored television program “Speaking Freely,” seen in more than 60 PBS markets nationwide over five seasons, and the author of "Freedom Sings," a multimedia stage show celebrating the First Amendment that continues to tour the nation's campuses.
He was an early advocate of making newspaper content available online, launching online newspapers in both Florida and New York in 1993.
For 12 years, Paulson was a regular guest lecturer at the American Press Institute, speaking to more than 5,000 journalists about First Amendment issues. He was honored with the API Lifetime Service Award. In 2010 and 2011, he served as chair of the PBS Editorial Standards Review Committee.
In 2007, Paulson was named fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists, “the highest honor SPJ bestows upon a journalist for extraordinary contributions to the profession.” In 2008, he received the Robert S. Abbott Memorial Award for Meritorious Service in Mass Communications from the Southern Regional Press Institute. He has also been elected to the Illini Publishing Hall of Fame at the University of Illinois.
He is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He also has served as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School. In 2008, he received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from American University.