Editor's Notebook: Patch Celebrates its 100th Site Launch

It's funny to think that around this time last year, Wilton Patch was gearing up to launch as the company's ninth site.

Fast forward twelve months, and we're now about to launch our 100th site, making Wilton something of an elder statesman in Patchland (I'm picturing him sitting by a roaring fire, stroking his regal-looking beard, laptop in hand).

Not long after I started last August, we had an all-editorial meeting in New Jersey. That consisted of about twelve of us sitting around a table at a Portugese restaurant in Newark. To put things in perspective, an all-editorial meeting now would need to be held in a space akin to Madison Square Garden.

But that night sticks out in my mind and seems a good metaphor for where Patch has been and where it is headed.

I decided to drive to Newark that night from Connecticut. I plugged the address I was given into Google Maps, bolted down I-95 at armhair-singeing speeds, managing somehow to avoid the typically maddening early evening traffic, and piloted my Saab (plentiful in Newark, I assure you) expertly into a curbside parking space.

I walked the block to the address I was given and was surprised to find that it led to a very old, very DEP-visit-worthy pet store. I asked the gentleman inside if this was where the Patch dinner was.

"No sé, amigo," was his response. Super.

Fearing I was in the middle of an elaborate new-editor-hazing ritual (Newark/foreign pet store/nightime), I called our Editor-In-Chief, Brian Farnham.

To my great relief, he answered and said he'd gotten the address wrong. They were just down the street at what turned out to be a most delicious dinner with a most intelligent and inspiring group of people.

I recount that story because it captures my Patch experience thus far pretty well. I began my days with the company excited and nervous (driving to dinner at an awesome place in not-always-awesome Newark), I was wildly unsure of where we were going and what we were tasked with doing at first (foreign pet store), and I've ended up surrounded by incredibly talented people doing work that is immensely gratifying (like eating outstanding Iberian cuisine) and important (getting home from Newark safely).

A year later, I can't help but look back and marvel at what we've already accomplished. I like to think we've done a good job of bringing you Wilton's news in a timely, engaging fashion. It has been as much a pleasure getting to know Wiltonians as it has been providing them with important information about themselves and their town.

But it is where we are headed that is perhaps most exciting. Emerson probably said it best.

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail," he wrote.

Patch is taking community news and, in a larger sense, journalism as a whole in a direction heretofore untrod. The response we've gotten from our towns, already, leads us to believe that we are on to something big and something vital.

We are, very much, plowing into uncharted territory. Fortunately, the trail we're leaving behind is filled with patches that are not just placeholders for the journey, but great destinations in and of themselves.

And the more great people we bring on board, the more communities we can empower and enlighten, the greater this journey gets. In practical terms, I'm excited to see our Connecticut region expand and deepen because it will do nothing but strengthen and widen what I consider to be the already great coverage we provide.

So, as Patch celebrates the launch of its 100th site, I'd like to thank Wiltonians for their readership and for allowing us to help share their lives and town with them. And as Patch continues its expansion, I look forward and promise to keep digging deeper into this community. Because, to borrow from another author, what we discover from the steps we have already taken is just as important as the trip yet to come.

"I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within." – Lillian Smith