A Belated Hello ... and Some Exciting News

In the last few weeks, there have been some changes at the Manchester Patch. A new look for the site and a new face -- mine -- bringing news to you.

You no doubt have seen my byline more than a few times, and some of you may even have seen me around town. Some of you may even know me, from past work I did for the Patch or other publications.

For those of you who don’t know me, a quick introduction: My name is Karen Wall. I’ve lived at the Jersey Shore (except for my college years) for 35 years now. I graduated from Brick High School in 1984, and after graduating from Michigan State University in 1988, I have spent the last 26 years working for primarily for newspapers. Of those, I spent 20 years with the Asbury Park Press, including four years as the editor of Hook, Line & Sinker, before going to part-time work for the last few years to balance work and needs at home. In my career, I’ve worked in news and sports. I’ve covered township council meetings and fisheries council meetings, high school football games and charity soccer games.

Coming back to Patch full-time (I had been here part-time for a couple of years) is an exciting move, and I look forward to bringing news to all of you. If you have stories you want to share, news tips or, yes, even complaints, please feel free to email me at karen.wall@patch.com and I will get back to you.

Now, on to the really good news: for a few weeks now those of you who were big contributors to the Patch have been sidelined as we transitioned to the new site.

It’s time to come off the bench.

The contributions access has been reopened fully to Patch users. Click on the ”Contribute to Patch” button at the upper right side of your screen to get started. If you had an account previously, you likely will need to change your password. But hopefully you will find the new system easy to use to share your events and your good news with the community without me as the middlewoman.

The new site design also allows you to bookmark all of your favorite Patches in one place. Click on Find Your Patch to see it.

If you have questions or difficulties, don’t hesitate to ask me. If I can’t don’t know the answer, I’ll find it out.

Thanks for being a part of Patch!