Patch Drops St. Louis Editors, But Let's Not Say Goodbye

I’ve written some tough articles for Maplewood-Brentwood Patch, but this is the hardest.

By now you may have heard that Tuesday is my last day with Patch. AOL, Patch’s parent company, laid off almost half of its thousand editors in August. That move finally affects the remaining dozen St. Louis area editors on Tuesday.

I got my start with Patch freelancing for then Maplewood-Brentwood editor, Ryan Martin. My first beat was MRH football. Ryan took Brentwood. My role expanded, and when Ryan moved up in the company, I was honored to become the Maplewood-Brentwood editor in Oct. 2011.

Maggie Rotermund, editor of University City and Clayton-Richmond Heights, did a great job putting into words what this experience has meant to us.

“The best part of being a part of Patch is without question the people. That starts with the amazingly talented people I've had the great privilege of working with over the past few years and the wonderful people I've met as a Patch editor. You have made this job rewarding and challenging and I will treasure my time covering the news” of Brentwood and Maplewood.

AOL will continue to update Maplewood-Brentwood Patch and send out daily newsletters. You are encouraged to continue to post events, announcements and blogs.

If you’re wondering what your Maplewood-Brentwood Patch editor will be doing, here it is, and it’s pretty exciting.

I’m starting my own website to cover local news of Brentwood and Maplewood in what I’m calling 40 South News. It’s on Facebook too.

It’s in its infancy, and will be changing and improving, but know you can count on lots of local Brentwood and Maplewood news everyday.

Also, I’m partnering with an advertising service that offers editable ads kept up to date through Facebook status changes. 

So lets not say goodbye. I’ll still be running into you in all the old spots—and probably some new ones—in Brentwood and Maplewood. 

One more thing: the good man who started up Maplewood-Brentwood Patch, Ryan Martin, has landed on his feet as digital content director for the Elkart Truth daily newspaper, in Elkart, Indiana.

Best to all, Doug