New Blog in Town

A new publication, http://www.patch.com , intends to provide daily news coverage for Mission Viejo. The local edition will be run by Pete Schelden, a former OC Register reporter.

Also associated with Patch is Spencer Kornhaber, who formerly wrote for OC Weekly. Spence will cover Lake Forest.

Patch, a nationwide enterprise owned by AOL, is starting up websites in South County cities. The local effort wants to bring daily newspaper journalism back to cities the Register has largely abandoned. Each Patch city will have a full-time editor/reporter, as well as freelancers and columnists.

The Register has lost subscribers in Mission Viejo, and the popularity of Saddleback Valley News declined when “news reporters” began filling space for news with city hall’s press releases. SVN has censored letters to the editor to the point residents are not inclined to write. SVN’s section for letters is filled with letters sent to (and rejected by) the Orange County Register, usually about national politics instead of local issues.

Two weeks ago, an OCR reporter, Kristy Chu, botched an article about campaign finance, providing erroneous information about council candidates’ expenditures. Niaz Pirani left SVN a month ago, but his name still appears (as of Nov. 5) as the city’s reporter. There have been no Pirani sightings in Mission Viejo for a long time.