• by Tony Silber , Staff Writer, March 17, 2022

Patch, the hyperlocal news platform, announced that it’s forming a partnership with the ad-management technology supplier Broadstreet Ads to connect independent news publishers to the broader digital advertising ecosystem.

In the partnership, Patch links its “The Local Network,” formed last year, to the Broadstreet platform, giving independent publishers an opportunity to tap into previously out-of-reach programmatic networks and scalable national channels, delivering more access to big-name marketers.

Broadstreet is used by hundreds of local news and magazine-publishing groups, mostly for serving direct-sold campaigns for local advertisers. Broadstreet serves several billion impressions a month to an audience of over 50 million.

Direct-sold campaigns will continue to be the core revenue sources for local publishers, but this initiative allows them to effectively supplement revenue with programmatic and national ad campaigns.

Patch President Warren St. John said the partnership is about solving for a systemic injustice in the advertising ecosystem, in which small publishers doing valuable journalism are cut off from the main flow of the digital ad spend.

“By connecting our platform to the incredible network of trusted, high-quality local publishers Broadstreet has assembled over nearly a decade, we’re leveling the playing field for independent publishers while also giving our brand partners access to one of the last untilled fields in the digital publishing landscape,” he said in a press release.

Smaller local publishers, added Broadstreet Founder Kenny Katzgrau, are “effectively excluded because they focus on serving a single community really well.”

“This new partnership isn’t a case of one programmatic partner replacing another," said Patch Chief Commercial Officer Drew Schutte. "It’s really about incremental ad support where there was none."

Without access to programmatic backfill, according to the press release, over 300 million impressions go unfilled each month on independent publisher sites in the Broadstreet network, a significant lost opportunity.

“And the fact that these are highly engaged, quality audiences segmented at the town level is potentially powerful for marketers looking for new, untapped opportunities to connect with customers,” Schutte added.

Patch describes itself as the largest hyperlocal news platform in the U.S. and a source of breaking news and community news for over 1,200 neighborhoods, towns and cities across all 50 states. Its 135 full-time journalists produce over 1,000 local news posts per day, the company said.

Patch already partners with national brands like Ring, Verizon, L.L. Bean and Fidelity, as well as major SSPs that run national and geo-targeted campaigns across Patch communities.

“The fact that Broadstreet already has code on its publisher sites allows us to scale much more quickly,” Schutte said. “And through Broadstreet, we can serve into existing placements without having to add new ad slots to publisher sites. We understand that publishers want the opportunity to generate more revenue without having to compromise on site experience for loyal audiences.”