If we are not going to have our own page for North Reading alone I am opposed to this. I would hope anyone who agrees with me would also let Patch know this. For many years Reading wanted nothing to do with North Reading. My Question is will we still have our own page and this will be an additional page someone can go to?

I agree with Joe. The explanation in this article is a load of you know what. Nobody's been telling NR Patch that NR residents want more coverage of Reading. If we did, we could simply use the Reading Patch.
North Reading separated from Reading in 1853 for a good reason. We don't want to be second banana to Reading. We're not Reading. Furthermore, combining North Reading and Reading goes against the Patch's stated objective of providing "hyperlocal" content.
Why don't you be honest and tell the truth about why you're doing this? According to many media reports, AOL lost over $100 million on the Patch business in 2011, and AOL is obviously trying to cut its losses. By killing NR Patch, AOL/Patch is sealing its own doom.

"It makes more sense to our readers and our local small business owners to offer coverage that extends to Reading, doesn't it?"

Not particularly.

I, too, agree with Joe. It's no big deal to switch between the two if we want to. Please leave North Reading and Reading separate.

Will the same URL direct visitors to the joint site?
Will you have an editor for each town or will one cover both and really on stringers?
Is it possible to subscribe to just North Reading news?

Other than both having seven common letters making up a word, Reading and North Reading only share a border. The North Parish of Reading left Reading in 1853 - to form North Reading for good reason The North Parish was being ignored by Reading. Leave the two Patches 100% separate.

Differences betweent he two towns:
1. High School Sports are in two different leagues. Cape Ann League for North Reading and Middlesex ?? League for Reading.

2. Population - Reading is much larger than North Reading. Once again history is going to repeat itself and North Reading will be playing second fiddle to Reading.

3. Library System - North Reading MVLC Reading NOBLE.

4. I could go on and on.

The "Powers That Be" at the Patch should understand the communities and the feelings of the communities they are reporting on. Other than the having "Reading" in our town's name, North Reading wants nothing to do with Reading. I can not remember the last time I went to Reading to do any shopping or dining, so having to see advertisements for Reading will 100% irritate me.

If I wanted to live in Reading I would have bought a home there.

DO NOT COMBINE THE PATCH!!!!

Joe - Is it time to explore changing our town's name?

Joe, Barry, Tim, Nikki, Mary are all correct.

Please do not lump us in with Reading. North Reading is an entirely separate town.

Hi Les,
Thank you for the info. If i read it correctly we will NOT have our own page. I am opposed to this. I hope more ressidents who agree with me let Patch know they are opposed to it also. We are a seperate town and we want to stay that way. I am serious when I say residents of Reading looked down on us for many years. I have heard town officials in Reading say "We do not care what North Reading has to say we are Reading" !!

Marci, i only hope if enough people let Patch know how they really feel about this Patch will not do it. As we both know many people are afraid to say how they feel about issues.

This sounds like a solution without a problem. If this a cost-cutting move, please say so, but please don't tell us it is by popular demand, because that is clearly not the case.

I had such high-hopes for the Patch as an online alternative for local news, but after months of "What's your cat's name?" and "Who makes the best pizza?" I'm starting to see why the Patch is losing money.

The town has dozens of committees and boards, not to mention other community leagues and organizations and the Patch can't cover them as it is. How are you going to cover them when you've combined with an even larger community?

Looks like the Transcript is going to be my source. Too bad, Patch, too bad.

The article says:"You’ve been telling us you’d like more coverage of Reading – and we’ve heard you." Just who are these people who've been telling you this? Where have they posted this? I'm one of the more frequent posters and I've never seen or heard such feedback. If someone wants more info about Reading, don't they know that they can find links to the Patch sites of neighboring towns at the bottom of the NR Patch home page?

I'm betting that a combined R/NR page will lean *heavily* toward Reading stuff and we'll end up an afterthought.

I suspect there's financial trouble in Patch-ville and this is an attempt for a short-term fix. Thanks, Patch, it was nice while it lasted.

This is unfortunate. As a former newspaper reporter (many many years ago for a small daily newspaper) this is how the downfall of that industry began. Combining editions from various towns led to less coverage of the smaller towns, which led to fewer people in those smaller towns buying and reading that newspaper, which in turn basically led to the newspapers going out of business.

Goodbye Patch...Its been nice knowing you!

Excuse me while I sanitize an appropriate phrase that sums up this discussion: "Please don't pour water on my leg and then try and convince me that it's raining!"

It is unfortunate to combine North Reading and Reading Patch. I am against this proposal. FIRST and FOREMOST, I want to read news about North Reading!

The "explanation" and "justification" for combining the two editions is so transparent as to be amusing. Who do you think believes any of this? That many people have requested it - where are they among the comments to this article? I have regularly checked the Patch since I learned about it. If I really, really, really want to know what's going on in Reading, I can check the Reading Patch!!! Brilliant, isn't that?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I think in all communities small town papers bring the joy of seeing local children's accomplishments in sports, theater, education etc. We like to see the property values of houses in our home town, Read what events are going on in our own community to support our community. I have nothing at all against Reading but I want to read about my community not any other one. I read the Globe for that. I really wish Patch would remain the same I found it a great resource for this community.

I have not seen one pro comment for this merger. So Patch are you really listening to your readers.

By the way, everyone is missing the biggest clue of what the Patch thinks of North Reading.

The name of the new page is as quoted from the article "Related Topics: Reading-North Reading Patch" The proper name should be alphabetical and be:
North Reading-Reading Patch.

We are NORTH READING! Not Reading.

By the way:
Is Lynnfield going to combine with Wakefield? Why not,those two towns share "field" in their names.

Is North Andover going to combine with Andover? Why not? It is the same thing as North Reading and Reading.

Good-bye Patch....all good things come to an end.

Les,
As you can see no one is in favor of this change. Is there any chance of Patch not doing this or is it a done deal? I really hope you or someone can stop this from happening. As you know I post on Patch almost every day like Fred and I have to agree with him I have never see anyone request this. I was going to ask you to put it to a vote on Patch before you did this but I can see clearly now that would be a waste of time because like me no one that has posted wants this to be done.. PLEASE reconsider this decision before we all lose one of the best means of communication we have ever had in our town.

Joe, I'm pretty sure the decision isn't being made at the local level - it's being made by higher ups at Patch. AOL has been losing tons of money on Patch, and has been consolidating town sites all over the country. If you go to www.patch.com, there is a list of brains behind Patch (the Management Team). Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to communicate directly with them.

Interestingly, there is an article on the Reading Patch that is identical to this one (with the names of Reading and North Reading reversed), also claiming that the readers of the Reading Patch have been clamoring for information about North Reading. Judging by the comments on the Reading Patch site, that doesn't seem to be the case. Their readers don't want to have anything to do with North Reading.

Barry, My hopes were that Les or someone would relay our messages to the higher ups on this issue. I already put a posting on the Reading Patch. Lets hope they reconsider this decision.

Hey, I just checked out the Reading Patch and they only have 12 posts against the idea to our 32. Looks like North Reading is more vocal about our views than our neighbors.

North Reading residents beware, this is just the first step before we reincorprate you back into Reading proper.

Going out on a limb here, but seeing how the Transcript is published once per week perhaps Patch editors are struggling to find interesting, meaningful and substantial news stories to report on minute by minute. Byproduct of a small, quiet suburb I guess. I'll take my online news combined with another town in exchange for the small town feel North Reading provides any day.

To Les (or whoever it was that posted the original "article" at 6AM: I challenge you to give us 9 or 10 names, out of a combined population of approximately 40,000, of the people requesting information about our neighbors. That would be less than 3/100ths of 1%. Heck, give us 5 names!

Your stated reason smells more & more like rotting fish. Don't take us for fools; tell us the truth. We're big boys & girls. We can take it, but stop lying to us!

Mary, You are correct. Aaron B. seems to have a lot to say but has no idea what he is talking about. I can remember when this was done and the question was asked "what about out of town peiople" the answer was " Who cares about them this might keep them out of the Depot area if we charge them".

Hi everyone:

Thank you for all your comments. We take this kind of feedback to heart and while we know we can’t make everyone happy all of the time, I hope you’ll give us a chance to show you how committed we are to covering both communities.

We want to be able to serve both North Reading and Reading effectively, and that means both users and small businesses in our area.

There was no way to adequately do that with two separate sites; we were splitting our ability to serve our readers and our ability to help support local businesses.

That should have been relayed in the message to our readers this morning. It was not and for that I am sorry.

I understand your frustration with the change. I, too, am a North Reading resident. Please know that though the site will cover both communities that doesn’t mean that we are going to diminish one town's coverage for the other.

Reading and North Reading news and events will be on both sites. And one won’t get more coverage than the other.

I hope you continue to read Patch each day. We value our readers and I value my fellow North Reading residents.

I am glad to see this dialogue on the site and hope it continues.

Thank you.

Les,
It is blatantly apparent that the Patch has made none of its readers in both North Reading and Reading happy. The only "happy" party in this new arrangement is the corporation which owns the Parch.

This is the beginning of the end for the Patch. I am sorry to say I do not see it surviving. Too bad a good idea to bring local news to social media but totally mismanaged.

Les,
It appears the Powers that Be way way over your head just does not get it. As you stated in your post "...while we know we can’t make everyone happy all of the time..", The Patch with this move has certianly proven beyond all reasonable doubt that it can make no one happy all of the time!

Interesting footnote to all, on the NR Patch, when you hit "Nearby", the first town to pop up is REading, but on the Reading Patch site, the first town to pop uo is Wakefield. So at the start of the Patc, it is obvious that the Patch did not even consider North Reading is nearby to Reading.

Second footnote, if to save money sites needed to be consolidated, North Reading should have joined with Lynnfield, similar size towns and at least the high school play in the same league, so high school sports coverage would have been more to the readership's interest.

I am not a fan of this idea, either. See ya!

I don't see how this will work. This morning, North Reading Patch ran a story about how 10 people have taken out nomination papers for public office. I doubt that anyone from Reading cares about the North Reading election, and worry that the combined site will only produce "vanilla" news to try and keep everyone happy.