Will AOL's 'Patch' Kill Your Local Newspaper?

[Commentary] Local newspapers and alt-weeklies, once considered lucrative for their relative monopolies on arts coverage and classified listings, have found themselves assaulted by a variety of hyper-local online start-ups, citizen bloggers, and media giants hiring cheap freelancers.

AOL, which is in the midst of transitioning to an ad-supported business model, is vying to dominate the hyper-local market with an experimental network of Patch websites. Given the company's plan to hire 500 journalists for the rapidly expanding division, it's a fair question to ask whether or not local, mostly print-only, newspapers will go virtually extinct.