Drew Hansen opted to leave his job at the Patch last week, after declining an offer to oversee 14 Patches in Virginia and Maryland.
His departure comes amid a major retrenchment of the Patch operation, the hyper-local news websites sold in January by AOL to Hale Global.
Last Wednesday, the new owner said it was slashing as many as two-thirds of its jobs while keeping 900 Patch news sites open. How it is going to provide coverage of all these sites is a big question. In Alexandria, Mary Ann Barton now appears to be covering the three Patch sites here by herself. But there has been very little local news in recent days. See the following article for more detail about changes at the Patch.
Hansen’s departure creates a big gap in news coverage of Del Ray. Since the Del Ray Patch was launched in September 2010, he has provided an unprecedented amount of objective, well written, and timely coverage of Del Ray news and events.
Alexandria’s two weekly newspapers and the local website alexandrianews.org provide relatively little coverage of the neighborhood.
Hansen joined the Patch in late June 2010. In May 2013, he added the Old Town Alexandria Patch to his responsibilities, as AOL began to consolidate its operations. During the past five months, he has been overseeing five Patch editors in Northern Virginia. Understandably, his Del Ray coverage declined somewhat. Throughout his tenure at the Patch, Hansen also covered the Alexandria City Council and Planning Commission for the Alexandria Patch sites.
Hansen’s departure provides an opportunity for the DRCA to help fill the news and information gap through its recently launched and more versatile new website. But we will need volunteers who can contribute for this to happen. If you are interested, if only on an occasional basis, email Bill Hendrickson.
Hansen left at least one story unfinished when he departed the Patch and has provided it to the Del Ray Citizen, which can be viewed here.