LEAKED MEMO: Patch Execs Tell Employees Patch Is Not Dead, Despite What They Read In The New York Times

In his weekly Sunday night column, "The Media Equation," New York Times reporter David Carr seemed to pronounce AOL local news network Patch dead.

His headline: "AOL Chief's White Whale Finally Slips His Grasp."

His lede: "Tim Armstrong, the chief executive of AOL, is finally winding down Patch, a network of local news sites that he helped invent and that AOL bought after he took over."

Carr's phrase "winding down" led many people on Twitter to believe he was reporting that AOL was shutting down Patch imminently.

That's not happening - not according to a memo we've obtained that Patch COO Leigh Zarelli Lewis sent out to employees this morning.

It reads:

From: Leigh Zarelli <[redacted]>
Date: December 16, 2013, 8:59:57 AM EST
To: Employees <[redacted]>
Subject: Quick update

Team -

We are continuing to talk with potential partners about Patch and there is no change in course or direction from what we have discussed as a team. Patch gets and will get a lot of media coverage, but we will keep you updated as we walk through the partner talks. The most important thing to focus on is the service we are providing to millions of local consumers and customers.

- Leigh & Bud

--
Leigh Zarelli Lewis
SVP, COO | Patch - AOL
[redacted]

Beyond its headline and lede, Carr's column gives an accurate look at what's going on at Patch.

Here is the situation in full, according to our reporting:

• Back in May 2012, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong promised Patch would be profitable by 2014.

• 2014 is not here, and Patch is not yet profitable.

• AOL is talks with VCs and media companies about offloading Patch onto them in some fashion.

• If those talks don't go well and further cuts don't bring Patch to profitability in the months ahead, it will probably get shut down.