What Is Patch: It's Houston’s Newest News And Community Platform

METRO HOUSTON, TX -- Good Morning, Houston.

This is how it all begins each and every day, and always before the sun begins to rise.

You roll over and swing your feet to the floor, forcing your body into a standing and upright position, stretching as you reluctantly pad your way into the kitchen for that first morning cup of coffee.

Your cellphone lights up with the press of a button, and you scroll down as you take that first sip, adjusting your eyes to find the tiny green app marked with the “P” and start your day.

And there it is.

Patch.

Houston’s newest news source.

You see, Patch is unlike anything you’ve seen, as far as news.

It goes beyond the soundbyte, and news story. It’s much bigger than that.

I can also say that when you try Patch, you’ll like it.

A lot.

Quite simply, it’s a hyper-local news and community platform that also allows readers to participate, and share news and information from their community.

• Become a contributor to Patch, post calendar of events directly to the site!
• Need more help? Click here.

In the Greater Houston area there are a total of 12 Patches with more to come.
It’s free, and you, the consumer, have the power to participate.
In fact, here’s a list of those in your area:

• Houston
• Pasadena
• Clear Lake
• Conroe-Montgomery County
• Bellaire
• Galleria-Riveroaks
• Houston Heights
• Humble-Kingwood
• Meyerland
• Midtown Houston
• Sugar Land
• The Woodlands

You can also follow us on our Houston Patch Facebook pages, or any other Patch facebook pages. Such as:

• Clear Lake Patch Facebook
• Conroe-Montgomery County Patch Facebook
• Humble-Kingwood Patch Facebook
• Pasadena,TX Patch Facebook
• Sugar Land Patch Facebook
• The Woodlands Patch Facebook

More About Me

The best part of all this is, is that as the Field Editor for seven of the Houston area Patches I get to do this and share it all with you.

My goal is to get you to the news in your neighborhood, school district, city and county, much like I used to do as a newspaper reporter.

For nearly 20 years, my byline was on the pages of newsprint.

You know, the kind with the unmistakable smell of ink that left black smudges on your fingertips from turning each page?

It’s been a career that has taken me all over Texas and New Mexico, starting in the small Texas town of Seguin, just outside of San Antonio, then El Paso, Las Cruces, New Mexico; Temple, Texas, and back to my old stomping ground of Houston.

I honestly love it, although I complain at times, I still get to do a lot of cool things.

Beyond being a reporter, I’m a native Texan, fourth generation in fact.

I was born in the north Texas town of Mineral Wells, about 40 miles west of Dallas/Fort Worth, and grew up in Missouri City, not far from Houston, but that is not where any of this started.

No, it started years later in a classroom in Southwest Texas State University, in San Marcos, where I was taking the required summer newswriting course.

The instructor in that class, who taught us the finer points of interviewing, assumed the persona of characters, all named David Hasselhoff, and we fired away with questions.

As Yoda might say, “Hooked, I was.”

I switched my major that summer from broadcasting, where I had already worked for two years, to print journalism and graduated the next year.

Throughout those years, I meandered to and fro as reporters tend to do, eventually ending up in my old hometown with a new wife.

I landed with the only daily left in Houston, covering community news pieces for the neighborhood news section.

I watched the business change and I wondered if I could change with the business, or it if would leave me in the dust.

In 2014, I heard about Patch for the first time, but it was one of those things that was far away from Texas.

By 2015, Patch was in Texas, making the first stop in Austin and then Houston the very next year.

In September, my byline began to appear on Patch and people began to ask me, "What the heck is Patch?"

In 2017, I was joined by reporter and editor Scott McDonald who took on five brand new Houston area Patch's.

Scott, who is a UT grad (Hook'em) is also a military veteran like me, and a top-notch veteran reporter, too.

While Patch does rely on local editors, the best news stories come from you. So let’s do this together.

Contact me any time at bryan.kirk@patch.com

Image: Patch