Patch contact: how to reach your local editor and get your story on Patch

By Zach Schleien

Patch has no single newsroom inbox. Here's how to reach your local editor, send a news tip and post your own press release as a Neighbor News article.

Patch doesn't publish one newsroom inbox. To contact Patch about a story, use the mail icon in the footer of Patch.com or the Patch app to reach your local editor, and use support@patch.com for account and posting help.

You can also post a press release, op-ed or letter to the editor yourself after one extra verification step.

I've earned 200+ media placements across 25+ countries, including 18 TV appearances and 52 major publications, and I've never hired a PR agency. Local outlets follow the same rule as the big ones. The editor needs a reason this story belongs in front of their readers today.

Rather skip the pitching? I can get you into Patch, guaranteed. Book a press call.

Key takeaways

• Patch runs more than a thousand local sites, so your story goes to one town's editor, not a national desk.
• Reach your editor through the mail icon in the footer. Use support@patch.com only for help with your account or a post.
• A verified account can post events and classifieds. Articles need one more verification step and get labeled "Neighbor News."
• A Neighbor News post stays in your home community unless your editor chooses to share it with nearby towns or put it in an email to readers.
• Every pitch needs a local angle. Patch's own rules ask for it.

What Patch is and which part of it fits you

Patch calls itself an independent U.S. local news and information platform, in over a thousand locations across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Its About page says it's "run by professional editors and salespeople" and that it "welcomes and encourages community members to post directly to the site."

That gives you two different ways onto Patch.

The first way is an editor runs your story. That's press in the normal sense. Editors show up with a Patch Staff byline, and some cover several towns.

The second way is you post it yourself. Patch's FAQ lists four kinds of post:

• Events are for anything with a date and time. Patch says it "should always be posted as an event."
• Classifieds are for gigs, services and an "announcement about your business or org."
• Articles are for a press release, column or op-ed, letter to the editor or obituary.
• Business Listings are a page for your business, and one of the places Patch sends people who want to advertise.

If you're a founder or an expert, the two that matter most are a pitch to your editor and an Article you post yourself. An Event is worth doing when you really have one, like a free workshop or an open house.

How to find your local Patch editor

Find your town's Patch page by town name or ZIP code. Then do these three things:

1. Scroll to the footer on Patch.com, or open the Patch app, and click the mail icon. Patch's help section says that's how you contact your local editor.
2. Read a few recent stories from your town and look at the bylines. Note what that editor covers and what they ran last week.
3. Search your town's name plus "how to submit news tips" on Patch. Several town pages have an article from the local editor explaining how to send tips, and some give the editor's email address for that town.

Check the date on those how-to articles. Some are years old, and editors change. If the article looks old, use the mail icon.

If your story matters in more than one town, write to each town's editor and give each one a reason their readers care.

How to contact Patch: every route I could verify

I checked these on Patch's own pages in November 2026:

• Your local editor: the mail icon in the footer of Patch.com or the Patch app.
• News tips: the "Submit a news tip" button on the Contact Patch page opens Patch's posting page, so you post the tip yourself. Local how-to pages also say "News tips can be sent to your local Patch editor."
• Account or posting help: support@patch.com.
• Becoming a regular contributor: email contributors@patch.com with a link to your Patch profile, some examples of your work and a few sentences on why you'd like to contribute.
• Advertising: the "Advertise with Patch" button on the Contact Patch page.

I didn't find a phone number, a mailing address or a general press inbox on the Contact Patch page, so I'm not giving you one. Please don't send story pitches to support. That address is for people who are stuck. If you want local TV as well, I covered the routes for WGN in Chicago and KTLA in Los Angeles.

How to post your own article on Patch

Patch's help section lays out the first part:

1. Click "Sign up" in the top right corner of Patch.com.
2. Enter your town or ZIP code, pick your nearest Patch site and enter your email address.
3. Enter your first and last name and create a password.
4. Click the link in the verification email Patch sends you.

Now you can post events and classifieds. To post an Article, you complete what Patch calls "one additional verification step."

Patch says a published Article "will be labeled as 'Neighbor News' and will show up in the Neighbor News section of your home community." Then comes the line that matters most: "If your local Patch editor sees fit, they can also choose to share it with nearby communities or include it in an email to readers."

So write your Article for the editor as much as for your neighbors. After it's up, send your editor a short note with the link and one sentence on why their readers would care.

Events and classifieds sometimes show up in other preview sections across Patch and in emails to readers. If you want more reach, Patch's posting instructions list a "Featured" boost across the region for $2 per day per community.

What Patch editors look for

Patch's Community Guidelines are plain about this: "Make sure your posts have a local angle and are relevant to the community where you are posting." Its how-to pages add that high volumes of submissions mean it's not always possible to publish every release or reply to everyone.

So your job is to make the story easy to use. Patch's how-to pages ask for this:

• Put all the important information in the body of your email so it can be cut and pasted. Small attachments are fine.
• Write it like a regular news article you'd see on your local Patch, with no unusual line breaks.
• Attach one high-quality photo, ideally a .jpg.
• Say who took the photo, and make sure you own the rights or have the owner's permission.

The angle does the rest. When Filteroff narrowed to New York only, it was because the retention data showed locals date locals. People care most about what's happening near them, and a local editor's whole job is built on that.

Your size doesn't matter much either. The Washington Post featured my mental health community on July 2, 2018, when it had about 150 members.

Here are five angles written for a Patch editor. All five are made-up examples to show you the shape:

1. A local person did something. A dad in town built an app after his kids' school bus kept showing up late.
2. A free event for residents. A founder runs a free Saturday workshop at the library for people starting a side business. Post the Event, then tell your editor about it.
3. A local twist on big news. When gas prices spiked, my real pitch was that high gas prices mean fewer first dates. For a town, that might be what higher prices are doing to the three gyms on Main Street.
4. Local numbers. You counted something real in your town and the result surprised you. Only use numbers you actually have.
5. A local milestone. Your shop turns 10, opens a second location or adds jobs.

A pitch you can copy

This is a made-up example. Swap in your real details.

Subject: Local bakery adding 12 jobs, opening second kitchen Saturday

Hi [editor's first name],

I read your story on the Main Street repaving and thought this might fit your readers.

[Bakery name] started in my garage in [town] four years ago. This Saturday we're opening a second kitchen on [street], and we're hiring 12 people from town. We're also giving free bread to the first 100 neighbors who stop by.

The details are below so you can use them as is. I've attached one photo that I took myself, and you have my permission to run it.

Would you like to interview the founder?

[Your name] [Phone number]

That last question is a real one. It's the sentence that got me booked on live TV.

My system for bigger campaigns is one master pitch, written in 1 to 2 hours, sent to 200 to 1,000 journalists who cover that beat. With Patch you need to change more than the name, because the town is the whole reason the editor cares. I wrote more about the pitch itself in how to write a PR pitch, and there are six more to copy in these media pitch examples.

Do-it-yourself checklist

1. Find your town's Patch page and read the last two weeks of stories.
2. Write down the one sentence that makes this story local.
3. Decide if it's a pitch, an Article, an Event or a Classified.
4. Put the full story in the body of the email with the who, what, when and where.
5. Attach one .jpg and say who took it.
6. Contact your editor through the mail icon, or the email on a recent how-to page for your town.
7. Set up your account with your real name and home community.
8. Post the Article or Event yourself if the editor doesn't reply.
9. Send your editor the link once it's up.

Mistakes that get pitches ignored

Sending a release with no town in it. In my Top Romp days I sent about 20 to 40 generic press releases to company contact pages, spent hours on each one and got zero replies. Then I watched how my friend Michael pitched, asked a ton of questions and started doing it myself.

Copying the same post into many towns. Patch's guidelines say "please don't duplicate event or other posts in multiple communities" and "Please don't post more than a few times a day."

Dressing up an ad as news. Patch says "To advertise on Patch, we ask that you instead post a business listing, an event or classified." Save your pitch for something that's news.

Using a fake name. Patch asks for your real first name, last name, email address and home community, and says your account may be terminated if that information is false.

Using a photo you didn't take. Patch's guidelines say to post only your own words, photos and videos. A how-to page adds that if someone else took the picture with your phone, they still own the rights.