Community Corner

What Patch Can Do For You

A crash-course Patch course.

Whether you're new to Patch or a local and loyal reader, here's a little more information on what we're all about:

What You Need to Know
We undertake a lot of original reporting everyday. But because there is so much to cover in Oak Park and River Forest, we'll point you to the good and important work of other local news outlets, bloggers and community websites. In other words, we will do what we do best and link to the rest.

Connect With Neighbors
One of the most powerful things about the Web is the way it can connect groups of people. Take that concept to the local level and great things can happen. 

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Everyone is welcome here — PTOs, politicians, nonprofit leaders, foodies, news junkies, librarians, neighborhood groups, you name it. 

Got something to say? Start a blog. Post an announcement. Contribute your group's events to our robust calendar. No item is too small. It's your site. 

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Accelerate Your Business
Have you ever searched for a local service and waded through all sorts of weird results? Typically, those listings pages are generated automatically and contain all sorts of bad information.

That won't happen here. Patch has an extensive business directory with more than 1,000 business listings, built and maintained by real people. But that's just the start. 

Local business owners can claim their Patch listings, free and easy. Claimed listings allow owners to add and update their photos, website information, hours of operation, contact information and more. That's all free, but there are paid options, too. For more on listings claims,  Oh, and if you see something questionable in your listing, please let me or our Directory Team know and we'll fix it. 

And if you're a local business owner-slash-expert in your field, why not start a blog and share your expertise?

Get Social
We're all about social. Our Twitter and Facebook accounts are a daily community conversation. Friend and Follow us. We won't overwhelm you with headlines, but we will tell you what you need to know, share what others are saying and doing, and we'll have some fun along the way.

Take Patch With You
Several readers have told me recently that "the Patch" is a daily read on their commute into the city. Love that. We have and iPhone, iPad and Android apps, which include mobile versions of news stories, events calendar and business directory. There's even a local weather forecast. 

Another great way to get Patch is through our newsletters, with daily and weekly delivery options. And signing up for Breaking News alerts is always a good idea.

Feeback
We love feedback. In many ways, we're a local startup and we're learning as we go. That's driven by you. Please tell us what you'd like to covered. On the flip side, please tell us what you think is overkill. 

Why? Without getting too academic, we think local news should be a two-way street. Your voice deserves to be added to the marketplace of ideas and included in news coverage. Also, we try to keep mistakes to an absolute minimum, but we expect to hear from you, whether it's pointing out a typo or, worse, an inaccuracy in our coverage.

We want to be open and transparent about in our reporting. We want to collaborate on stories, or maybe even larger reporting projects. We want to help connect these great communities. 

Over the past 18 months, we've worked very hard to build an audience of local readers. If you've heard of Patch but weren't sure about what we're up to, now's the time to check us out. Thanks for reading. 


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