Concord NH Patch Turns 5

CONCORD, NH – Concord NH Patch turned 5-years-old this afternoon.

At 4 p.m. on Friday, June 17, 2011, this news and community website was launched, providing the city of Concord an alternative news source. Eleven other sites in New Hampshire, along with sites in Iowa and South Carolina, were launched as “primary Patches” for the 2012 presidential campaign.

During the last five years, a lot has changed in the news and media business both here in New Hampshire as well as around the country, including at Patch. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is our ability to get you as much information, quickly and easily, as one person can.

The audience for the Concord site has stayed about the same when compared with last year, with unique viewers coming in at about 310,000 per month, on average. However, our page view counts have increased – 4.37 million during the last 12 months when compared to 3.3 million during the previous 12 months. What that means is while our physical readership has stayed about the same, you’re also looking at more stuff on the site, and we appreciate that.

Not unlike last year, the top story during the last 12 months had to do with, drum roll please, UFOs! Keep looking up at the skies, folks, and letting me know what you see.

Other popular stories during the last year included an alleged flasher on I-93 just before a NASCAR event, results from the historic 2016 First in the Nation New Hampshire Primary (and Patch was one of the first news sources to get numbers up, minutes after the polls closed in the capital city), a woman found passed away in White Park last summer, a story earlier this month about the Steeplegate Mall being sold (which was shared more than 3,400 times on Facebook), and the tragic death of seventh-grader Molly Banzhoff last month.

Our Facebook audience has also increased from 9,100 this time last year to more than 13,700, and more than 4,400 people follow us on Twitter, which is great, too, and we thank you for that.

Lastly, and certainly not least, as always, the success of Concord NH Patch depends on folks like you – pinging me about things you’re seeing in your neighborhoods, checking out and sharing our stories, and contributors, like Paul Brogan, who wrote a truly elegant piece earlier this month about what Concord NH Patch means to him, just before turning five.

Sincerely, thank you all so very much for five great years. I’m very grateful.

Best, Tony