NH Patch Turns 10; Editor Named Journalist Of The Year Finalist

CONCORD, NH — Patch in New Hampshire turned 10 on Thursday … Happy birthday!

The Concord NH Patch site went live around 3 p.m. on June 17, 2011, one of 10 news and community websites in the state that were part of "primary" Patch sites. The sites were started lean and mean here, in Iowa, and South Carolina, too, covering hyperlocal news and the 2012 presidential primary. Later that year, two more sites opened NH, bringing us to 12 sites covering 13 communities.

At the time, Patch was already in several states offering online-only news. The company has now grown to more than 1,250 sites and is expanding (and also featuring a new Patch Labs program where our company creates revenue-sharing sites with budding journalistic entrepreneurs).

Coming to Patch was a leap of faith, leaving what one might consider a pretty stable newspaper job (if there ever was such a thing) to try something new. Having competed with Patch sites in Massachusetts, I had a rough idea of what I was in for. Who would have believed, 10 years later, we are still here?

For a number of years now, I have put together posts celebrating Patch's b-day in New Hampshire while writing a quick column highlighting the ups and downs, accolades, big stories, and more. Some of those posts have included various forms of cake and candles — big and small cakes, ice cream cakes, and cupcakes, too, which have been featured in videos published on this day (it is a good excuse to get the kids a quick treat).

Birthday Notes From Prior Years

• Patch In New Hampshire Turns 9: Thank You, Concord!
• Concord NH Patch Turns 8: Thank You, Capital Region Readers!
• Concord NH Patch Turns 6
• Concord NH Patch Turns 5
• Concord NH Patch Turns 4
• Happy Birthday Concord NH Patch! (Third b-day)
• Happy Birthday, Concord NH Patch! (First b-day)

Read the 8th and 9th b-day posts, linked above, for more profound overviews of the history of Patch in New Hampshire.

The fam celebrates NH Patch's 10th b-day with another cake.

In my early 50s, wondering about the future became a bit of a distraction. Should something new and different be tried? Is journalism a young person's game? Will the business be alive and vibrant by the time retirement comes? Can I make it to retirement? Will I be homeless? I really want to make movies and sit and read books on the beach … I was questioning a lot about the career I kind of fell into. Sometimes, though, you just have to have faith it will all work out. Or you can do what I did and fight what is meant to be and live with the consequences — which can sometimes be disastrous.

One of the highlights of my waning days at Patch was writing about Shirley "Tippy" McBride, a girl who has been missing from Concord since 1984. The story won an NHPA Crime and Court Award that year and I have enough info and notes to write a small book about the case, something I hope to do soon.

By The Numbers: Between September 2014 and June 16, 2021, the 12 Patch sites in New Hampshire derived more than 98.2 million page views. At this time, two years ago, all the NH sites had collected about 55.3 million page views.

After a year and three days, nicknamed "the lost year," the return to Patch was heartwarming — the work performed, not unlike others, was missed, it turned out. Wow. Just like the beginning, when the site took off like a rocket, readers came back and told me why. While it was OK to try something different, it was better to return.

Are Awards Becoming Like B-Day Presents?

Not unlike last year, when a few days before Patch's 9th birthday the NH Press Association announced I won six awards, there were more awards this year, too.

They are becoming like birthday presents this time of the year.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Concord NH Patch won three awards:

• For Spot news: Shooting At Concord’s Second Start School Was A Student Suicide
• For Investigative story/series: Concord School District Releases Leung Sexual Misconduct Report
• For Crime-Court Reporting: Merrimack County Attorney Dropped Ball On Our Cases: Rape Victims

In the case of the Second Start shooting in February 2020, it was first ruled a suicide. Patch was the first outlet to write about the incident with pictures and video and produced a second follow-up story. Months later, it was revealed there were two shots inside the school — something I already knew due to neighbors, witnesses, and scanner chatter: The student had tried to shoot an educator first. This changed the story from a "suicide" to a "school shooting" — something that rarely happens in New Hampshire. What was surprising about this story, too, was few seemed to care about the truth of what happened at Second Start coming out. Which is why I continued to fight to get to the heart of the real story.

The investigative award involved more debris from the Primo "Howie" Leung teacher-student rape incidents. The Concord School District refused to release an extensive report about the incident and was sued (The Concord Monitor will win a first amendment award for its role in suing to have the Perkins report released; read the full list of 2020 NHPA winners here, FYI). The second piece in the series is a lengthy analysis of the many loose ends in this investigation that have still not been answered.

Patch does a lot of crime reporting, but it is not very often that rape victims and their families come forward to speak about their cases. Or, in the case of the third award, how they felt the county attorney and prosecutors dropped the ball with their cases. Many in Merrimack County did, and the result was an award-winning story.

The job of a Patch field editor is to cover as much news as possible and a lot of it is meat and potatoes stuff readers want to know. That is all great. But awards like this make it even more gratifying to see your best work acknowledged by others in the field.

Journalist of the Year? Well, 1 Of 3

Not to bury the lead but, I have also been named a finalist as one of three Journalists of the Year for 2020 in New Hampshire.

I have entered in prior years and never been a finalist which is not surprising since there are good journalists in New Hampshire. But for 2020, I'm one of three to win (which is awesome).

Along with a letter, five stories were submitted: The three award-winning stories mentioned above as well as "Welcome to Hell," the piece on homeless camps and fires in the city, and one of the stories I'm most proud of, the pre-New Hampshire first-in-the-nation presidential primary story with videos, "No Matter Who Wins NH Primary, U.S. May Still Be A Divided Nation." This story, more than a year later, has proven to be true — we are still very divided as a nation. This year, the judges chose not to issue an award in the Video News category despite this story being entered, which was very disappointing. I know, stop complaining. But still …

These awards are even more significant because, for 2020, there was a lot of competition — the association reduced the number of media Class categories from four to two. Outlets like Patch, with one guy, or InDepthNH.org, with one lady and freelancers, competed not amongst small news outlets but the biggest ones in the state. This is why we work collaboratively to bring you as much news as we can (they won a couple of awards this year, too). Another news partner, Jeffrey Hastings, is up for photographer of the year and four photo awards.

Similar to why radio stations are not put in categories with daily print newspapers, online news outlets, with single staffers, really should not be put into head-to-head competition with newspapers (or, maybe they should, and we all just live with the results). Either way, for 2020's news and information, it was another excellent year for Patch in New Hampshire.

A Big Thank You And Big Favors, Too!

If you made it this far in this year's birthday post, thank you.

And, thank you, again, for all your support in keeping this site (and all of our New Hampshire Patch sites) active, vibrant places for news and information.

As we move into the next decade, there will be changes in this business, with this company, my daily routine, and the things I do. I know what works because the data tells me what you read; but there are more things to enlighten the public about, too. If anything the coronavirus pandemic taught us, it is that we are all connected in many different ways we do not even realize. I am up for the challenge, raring to go, and I'm grateful to all of you for helping us get this far.

After all the support you have already given us, can I still ask for some favors?

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Top 10 Most-Read Posts

Here are the most-read posts on Patch during the past 10 years:

• 'She Made a Lot of Bad Decisions': Family's Heartbreaking Obituary for NH Woman Who Died of Heroin Overdose
• UFO Update: Craft Was Seen in Concord, Boscawen
• Shredded Chicken - Who Knew it Was So Easy?
• More UFO Lights Seen Over Concord
• Immigration Checkpoint On Major New Hampshire Highway
• NH Educator Becomes One Of The Oldest Women To Give Birth In U.S.
• Couple Going At It On Hood Of Car Arrested: Cops
• 10 Things Every High School Graduate Should Hear
• Mass. Woman Arrested for Exposing Herself on I-93

Got a news tip? Send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel.