Patch In NH Turns 15; Editor Wins 5 More New Hampshire Press Association Awards; Updates And Info

CONCORD, NH — Patch in the Granite State turns 15 today.

Happy Birthday to us!

Around 3 p.m. on June 17, 2011, the Concord NH Patch news and community website went live.

As has happened in the past, the birthday crept up on me, so there is no cake again this year (it was a feature of past years and an excuse to get a treat for my sons, who are now men… boy, how time flies…).

Before being hired at Patch, I was the editor of the Belmont Citizen-Herald, a weekly newspaper in Massachusetts, for many years. Like many other Granite Staters who go where the jobs are, I would commute to Lexington, MA, three or five days a week. A lot of the work became remote, including page layout and other tasks.

Belmont was a complicated but fun town to cover.

Fun fact: Between Sept. 3, 2014, and June 16, 2026, the 14 Patch sites in New Hampshire derived more than 154.7 million page views (Note: Data between June 17, 2011, and Sept. 4, 2014, is lost to the Google data world…).

Several times, after Patch opened sites in New England, an HR staffer from AOL would reach out to me about working for the company.

Around the third or fourth time, she asked, “Why aren’t you working for us again?” And for the third or fourth time, I had to explain I didn’t live 20 minutes from the community (a rule at Patch at the time)… and didn't even live in the state. Yet, even from my living room in New Hampshire, I was on breaking news often before the Patch editor for Belmont, a former colleague, was.

So, when Patch decided to open sites in New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina in 2011, it was a perfect fit for me: Thousands of dollars saved in gasoline costs, the ease of working from home, and the fun of covering news in my hometown (Schinellas have been in Concord for 119 years now).

I’m not sure, but I think, at this point, I’m one of the only Patch local editors left from the Primary Patch hires in 2011.

5 More Press Awards

A couple of months ago, the New Hampshire Press Association announced the finalists of its annual Distinguished Journalism Awards for 2025, and I was pleased to find out I’ll be getting five this year.

Since they are announced a couple of months before the banquet, which is always in June, they are almost like birthday presents for the annual note to readers.

The finalists include Breaking News (Water Street Bridge homeless camp shooting: Shooting Reported At Homeless Camp Under Water Street Bridge; 1 Detained, 2 At-Large); Crime and Courts (Concord police officer innocent of 2023 assault charges: Concord Police Officer, Accused Of Assault, Takes The Stand In His Own Defense; Witness Confuses Race Of Concord Officer At Sal’s Pizza Arrest Scene; First Trial Of Concord Cop Accused Of Assaulting Suspects Underway; Concord Police Officer Found Innocent In April 2023 Assault Case); Feature Story (about NH Cold Case playing cards: Second Deck Of New Hampshire Cold Case Playing Cards Hopes To Aid In Solving Crimes); Government Reporting (Accused arsonist named to ZBA alternate seat: Accused Arsonist Nominated By Concord City Manager To An Alternate Seat On The ZBA; Some Concord City Councilors Confirm Not Knowing About Criminal History Of ZBA Appointee); and Sports Photo (Sawyer flips opponent).

I'll learn whether they are 1st, 2nd, or 3rd at the banquet.

There were 30 categories in 2025 with nearly 400 entries by newspapers and online news organizations across the Granite State. So even though we are a small state, the competition is fierce.

This year, I did not put in as many entries as in previous years. To be honest, when reviewing the work from 2025, for the end-of-the-year review posts as well as considering entries for the award cycle, I wasn’t really as excited with a lot of my work last year compared to prior years.

That is something I clearly have to work on.

Most Read Posts & Stories

Here is a roundup of the most-read posts on Patch in New Hampshire during the past 15 years:

1. 'She Made a Lot of Bad Decisions': Family's Heartbreaking Obituary for NH Woman Who Died of Heroin Overdose
2. Immigration Checkpoint On Major New Hampshire Highway
3. 10 Things Every High School Graduate Should Hear
4. NH Educator Becomes One Of The Oldest Women To Give Birth In U.S.
5. NWS Issues NH Winter Weather Advisory for Upcoming Multifaceted Storm
6. Shredded Chicken — Who Knew it Was So Easy?
7. Couple Going At It On Hood Of Car Arrested: Cops
8. 2 People Dead At Bedford Hotel; Guest Describes 'Machete Attack'
9. More UFO Lights Seen Over Concord
10. Dead Body Found In Merrimack River: Video
11. 8 Tiny Houses for Sale in NH
12. UFO Update: Craft Was Seen in Concord, Boscawen
13. Radio Talk Show Host Howie Carr Has Medical Episode, Collapses During Live Broadcast
14. NH Hospital ‘Active Shooter’ Incident Under Investigation In Concord: State Police

15.2 Dead Bodies Found In Concord Walmart Parking Lot

‘We’re Expanding, Expanding...’

Just like Doc Hopper’s French-Fried Frog Legs, from “The Muppet Movie,” we’re expanding… expanding: Patch in New Hampshire is now in 226 communities and neighborhoods!

Here is the latest updated list.

Fourteen of those sites are legacy sites (our tech team calls them “OG” sites), while the others are newsletters.

The newsletters feature weather, calendar listings, aggregated stories, and a riddle. Readers can upload photos to be considered as the community’s photo of the day and other information directly to the newsletter sites.

By the end of this year, Patch should have a newsletter for every community in the state and across the country, which we’re very excited about!

If you don’t live in any of the 14 OG sites, do check out our new newsletters and let us know what you think, please.

Also Read

• New Hampshire Patch Turns 14; Editor Wins NH Press Association Awards; TY! To You

• NH Patch Turns 13: A Quick Belated ‘Thank You’ To Concord, 13 Other Cities & Towns
• Patch In New Hampshire Becomes A Preteen: Here’s To Turning The Awkward Age Of 12
• Happy Birthday, New Hampshire Patch 'Goes To 11': Watch
• NH Patch Turns 10; Editor Named Journalist Of The Year Finalist
• Patch In New Hampshire Turns 9: Thank You, Concord!
• Concord NH Patch Turns 8: Thank You, Capital Region Readers!
• The 7th birthday was Tony’s lost year …
• Concord NH Patch Turns 6
• Concord NH Patch Turns 5
• Concord NH Patch Turns 4
• Happy Birthday Concord NH Patch!
• Where is the 2nd Birthday post? I have no idea …
• Happy Birthday, Concord NH Patch!

Let Me Help You

As many of our regular readers already know, there is a lot to do and see on Patch.

Our interactive news and community websites offer more than just stories.

Here are just a few of the things you can do on Patch: Are you hosting an event in Concord? Post it here, in our event listings. I collect all these entries and send them out to our tens of thousands of readers across New Hampshire a couple of times a week. Do you have a business in Nashua? Take advantage of our free business listings here. These can be found in the masthead of all our sites in the Granite State. For a small monthly fee, we’ll put your listing as a display ad. Do you have something for sale in Salem? How about a professional announcement in Merrimack? A job listing in Bedford? How about an apartment or real estate listing in Portsmouth? Or lost and found at the beach in Hampton? The Patch Classifieds are the place to post all of this information. And if you own a business or need advertising, please consider purchasing ads on Patch and supporting our work financially.

Also, if you send me something and I don’t reply within 48 hours, please feel free to resend the information. The inbox is currently at 300-400 a day, so a lot of things fall through the cracks.

In closing, let me say again: thank you all for reading Patch, for advertising, for reaching out to me with tips, and, yeah, even just saying “Hi” to “the Patch guy.” It is a joy to get up every day and produce news and information for you.

Do you have a news tip? Email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube or Rumble channels. Patch in New Hampshire is now in 217 communities — and expanding every day. Also, follow Patch on Google Discover.