By Alexi Knock, Assistant News Editor
AOL Inc. and its subsidiary Patch Media Corporation recently announced that Hofstra will be the pioneer university for PatchU, a newly launched networking opportunity between the professional journalists of Patch online publications and students of several journalism schools. University students will have the opportunity to work out of Dempster Hall’s News Hub for the Mineola Patch site as an internship for college credit.
“Patch is a hyper-local website that has been one of the biggest developments we’ve seen in the past few years,” said Bob Papper, chair of the journalism department. “What was interesting with Patch is that it’s backed by AOL who is hiring more journalists than any other company in the country.” Patch operates in 186 communities across the country and continues to expand its coverage.
“We’re like a weekly local newspaper but we cover every day, several times a day,” said Mineola Patch editor Geoffrey Walter who will be working with students in the News Hub. “We have various topics from arts, government, business, sports, opinion, features, columns and more.”
Although other students at The University get paid $50-60 per article for other branches of Patch, several students have still chosen to join Mineola Patch through PatchU as an unpaid internship for credit.
Christian Heimall, who gets paid $50-60 per article to write for Garden City’s Patch does not think Patch is worth contributing to unless a student is paid. “Internship credit is good and getting money for it is an added bonus,” said Heimall. “You’re putting together a [Patch] product for zero compensation.”
Senior and Chronicle Entertainment Editor Lisa DiCarlucci was an intern at Rye’s Patch in Westchester this past summer. She was paid at least $50 per story as a freelance reporter writing one or more stories per week. DiCarlucci received three internship credits for JRNL 170 from The University. “It doesn’t make sense to me why someone would intern for the Mineola branch of Patch and not be paid when they could just as easily go and work for the Garden City branch and be compensated,” said DiCarlucci.
“I think it’s unfair that Patch is inconsistent with its internship policies just because it is affiliated with The University. It’s not that I think all internships should be paid, but I do think that a company needs to be consistent with its policies and not use a University affiliation to exploit students doing the same work that people are paid to do at other branches,” DiCarlucci said. “Hofstra should also be consistent because it is unfair to strike a deal with Patch letting students work for free when there are other Hofstra students doing the same exact thing for money.”
University alum David Gordon has been getting paid to write for Oyster Bay’s Patch since he attended the University. “I think it’s a shame that Patch is not giving these students any sort of monetary compensation for the labor they put in,” said Gordon. “While many internships are unpaid, it is within Patch’s ability, I believe, to do as little as reimburse the students for their transportation.”
Papper feels that Patch is being accused of looking for free workmanship because it is a large corporation. “AOL and Patch is not without some measure of controversy,” said Papper, “AOL is a giant company and there are people who don’t like that idea. Well, the news is heavily controlled by a series of conglomerates; whether one is worse than another I’m not sure. What a large conglomerate does is better ensure its future.”
Students who write for PatchU use News Hub equipment as well as other University resources in order to cover their stories. Although students who write for PatchU find it to be a rewarding experience, there has been debate about AOL’s use of free labor though this internship program. Professor Chris Vaccaro, editor/founder for Sachem Patch and regional sports editor for Long Island, disagrees.
“Every single media organization in the world offers internships, so our partnering with a university to get exposure for students is nothing but a positive thing,” said Vaccaro. “There’s nothing wrong with using interns and it has nothing to do with wanting free labor. It has everything to do with wanting the education of young journalists to go in a better direction than where it is right now.”
Walter agrees with the real world experience Patch offers. “Our partnership with Hofstra University offers Hofstra journalism students the opportunity to get real world experience as reporters, videographers and photographers because journalists today have to be extremely multi-talented.” Walter said. PatchU has now partnered with thirteen other journalism schools including Stanford, Northwestern and Indiana University. However, no other university provides a professional Patch editor for students to work with directly at the school.
When Papper was first approached about the idea to launch PatchU, he made sure that The University was the first school of journalism in the country to build this relationship. “A lot of companies have approached us asking to do a partnership,” said Papper. “I’ve said ‘no’ to almost everything because it has always been easy for me to see what the news medium gets out of the partnership, but much less clear what the student gets out of it.” Papper understands that almost every company can offer a student experience and clips, however, he say something different in Patch. “Students can get instant feedback because we’ve got a professional journalist who’s in the News Hub, a fair amount of the day that we didn’t have to pay.”
Another reason Papper chose to partner with Patch is because of its mother company, AOL. “AOL is hiring more journalists than any other company in the country,” said Papper. “I told [people at Patch] that if we’re going to get involved in this then I want more publicity. It’s a way of getting Hofstra noticed.”
Professor Chris Vacarro agreed that The University’s relationship with Patch was beneficial. “I think it’s an awesome opportunity for The University to partner up with a company that’s revolutionizing journalism,” said Vacarro, “It’s also amazing for the students to have real life experience with an incredible organization covering news in the digital era.”
Walter feels that both Patch and its interns are benefitting from the connection. “Ideally, we’d like to have interns cover everything, but we understand if they can’t do it a freelancer would be assigned,” he said, “Interns are offering us content and we’re offering them real world experience that they can’t always get by sitting in a classroom.”
Since Patch is offered as an inside internship, students who have already earned three credits from an outside internship can still write for PatchU for credit.
Senior broadcast journalism student Christina Meyers is another one of the first writers to be connected with the PatchU internship for credit. “Internships are a requirement so that was one of the biggest reasons,” said Meyers. “I thought it was a great opportunity being in the News Hub and the fact we do the same work that [Walter’s] freelance writers do. When I’m out on a story I say I’m a freelance writer for Patch.com because we do the same exact thing.”

Geoffrey Walter is the Patch editor for Mineola and will also be working with University students in the News Hub. (Michaela Papa/The Chronicle)