Hundreds of journalists laid off via conference call

Hundreds of editorial employees of hyper-local American news outlet Patch have been laid off just weeks after AOL sold its sites to Hale Global.

Some estimates peg the layoffs at 90 per cent of Patch’s staff.

The employees reportedly learnt of their termination during a conference call on Wednesday, the audio to which was obtained by Jim Romenesko.

Listen in here:

Hi everyone, it's [Patch COO] Leigh Zarelli Lewis. Patch is being restructured in connection with the creation of the joint venture with Hale Global. Hale Global has decided which Patch employees will receive an offer of employment to move forward in accordance with their vision for Patch and which will not. Unfortunately, your role has been eliminated and you will no longer have a role at Patch and today will be your last day of employment with the company.”

Also read: AOL CEO fires employee in front of 1000 employees

Lewis goes on to describe various severance benefits the company offers, ending cordially, "Thank you again and best of luck." It's unclear at this point exactly how many staffers were laid off, but one of Romenesko's tipsters claims it's as many as "80 to 90 per cent of Patchers."

Patch-y history

AOL Inc. CEO Tim Armstrong co-founded Patch, an ambitious experiment in local news meant to compete with newspapers, in 2007. AOL bought it in 2009 after Armstrong had taken over the helm of the New York-based Internet company.

Patch ran into the same problems that newspapers had already discovered — that it's expensive to cover local news.

For about an 18-month period in 2010 and 2011, Patch was the biggest hirer of journalists, just as they were being laid off from struggling US newspapers, said media analyst Ken Doctor of Outsell Inc.