Stepping up its ongoing efforts to regain relevance in a post-dialup world, AOL will acquire Huffington Post for $315 million. As part of the deal, Arianna Huffington will become Editor-in-Chief for all properties of AOL's rapidly expanding content empire, including the increasingly ubiquitous Patch.com hyperlocal news network. Top sites that will be added to Huffington's editorial domain include TechCrunch, Mapquest, Moviefone and the surviving blogs of the Weblogs, Inc. network (including Endgadget, TV Squad, PopEater and Joystiq), acquired by AOL/Time Warner in 2005. Will the internet never be the same again? more ›

Another local community will have its ins and outs covered daily online via Patch, as Hollywood comes into the fold of networked hyperlocal neighborhood sites today. more ›

The hyperlocal approach at its best: South Pasadena's Patch has published a mini-guide to the parks in their small city. There are six official community parks in South Pas (Garfield Park, Orange Grove Park, Arroyo Seco Park, Eddie Park, War Memorial Park, and Library Park), each offering history buffs, shade-seekers, playground climbers, and solitary amblers something different. For locals and picnickers with a penchant for patches of grass south of Pas, this is an excellent guide to help explore one of LA County's more charming small cities. Bonus: The author includes a video tour of the parks. more ›

AOL's brand of local news websites are growing faster than ever. Just last week, LAist posted about two new Patches in the San Gabriel Valley and today are two more in North Hollywood/Toluca Lake and in Monrovia. more ›

Love 'em or hate 'em, AOL's push for hyper local news took two more steps this week in Southern California. More specifically, Patch.com launched websites in the unincorporated community of Altadena and the city of South Pasadena. Behind the two sites are editors with masters degrees in journalism. more ›

Patch, the AOL-owned hyper-local neighborhood news website, is springing up in communities all over the Los Angeles region, but not all communities are handing out a warm welcome. Over at Yo! Venice! writer Bret bemoans that the new Venice news site is run by someone who does not live in the community, but rather Hollywood. He compares the portal to Walmart, which, interestingly enough, is the same comparison Timothy Rutt of Altadenablog makes in an interview with LA Weekly in a story today. more ›

Four neighborhoods this month became the first within Los Angeles city limits to become home for AOL's hyper-local initiative called Patch, which are those community news sites that have been popping this year in surrounding cities like West Hollywood, Calabasas and Redondo Beach. more ›