WO Patch Gets Itself a New Editor

As many of you probably already know, my byline is not unfamiliar in the Township of West Orange. However, it will now be moving from the printed page to the digital screen. 

After spending more than a year covering your town for the West Orange Chronicle as its editor and reporter, I have been named the new editor of the West Orange Patch website. The traditional form of a newspaper is changing, and I am enthusiastic about taking part in the shaping of this new model. 

For all of those who have seen me at public meetings, school events, and around town during the past year with my dark-rimmed glasses and notebook in-hand, you can be sure to see much of the same going forward. The way I package and present my reporting, however, I expect to change with the multimedia tools at my disposal on the Patch website. 

The longer I work in West Orange, the more I realize how big and diverse it really is. Every time I think I know the town, something comes along to surprise me. And I look forward to highlighting those new developments, accomplishments and labors. 

As I said last year when I started at the Chronicle, residents in a town need its newspaper -- or, in this case, its hyperlocal publication -- as much as a newspaper needs the residents in the town it reports on, and the Patch model emphasizes that even more. 

I will keep you informed of what goes on at public meetings, in the police blotter and where your tax dollars are going, and I will be even more meticulous in my fact checking as I make the move to this up-to-the-minute format. 

On the other hand, for this new model to work on all cylinders and truly represent West Orange, it needs you: the readers. I cannot be everywhere -- no matter how fast my little 4-cylinder Honda can take me -- so I need your help with tips and information when you see something. Moreover, the Patch website encourages residents to share ideas, information, experiences, pointers, recipes, how-to instructions and nearly anything else on its blogs. If you are interested and have the itch to write a blog about something, reach out to me. And just like a print newspaper, I encourage letters to the editor and opinion pieces. 

I have already written too much about myself at this point, so I will end it here. My email is mike.donofrio@patch.com. I look forward to continuing the relationship I have with those I already know in town, and making new ones with those I do not know yet.