What We Cover
Area Covered: Winchester, MA
Population: 20,810
Local Government: Town Meeting, Board of Selectmen
High Schools: Winchester High School
Meet Your Local Patch Team
Mark Ouellette, Editor
Mark Ouellette has spent the past several years reporting for daily and weekly newspapers (and their respective websites) in New Hampshire, including The Milford Cabinet, Merrimack Journal, Hollis/Brookline Journal, Bedford Journal, The Telegraph of Nashua and the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He also served as the founder, co-owner, managing editor and web editor of the former New Hampshire news website, NHReporter.com.
Andrew Sylvia, Editor
Andrew Sylvia is the local editor of the Westford and Chelmsford Patch.
He has written at least one piece for every Patch in Massachusetts north of Boston and has had bylines in more than a dozen newspapers in Vermont and New Hampshire, including The Telegraph of Nashua, the Milford Cabinet, Bedford Journal, the Hollis-Brookline Journal, the Keene Sentinel, the Pelham-Windham News, and the New Hampshire Union Leader. He also has contributed to various websites such as NHReporter.com, Ehow and the New Hampshire Sports Report after receiving a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Keene State College in 2004.
Roberto Scalese, Associate Regional Editor
Patch Associte Regional Editor Roberto Scalese has spent the last 12 years working as a writer and editor. A lifelong Revere resident, he graduated from Clark Univeristy with a degree in Philosophy.
John Waller, Contributor, Editor
Danielle Masterson, Community Editor
Danielle Masterson is the Community Editor for several Patch sites in Massachusetts, including Woburn. Between 2010 and 2012, she served as the Woburn Patch Local Editor.
Danielle graduated from Boston University's broadcast journalism program in 1999, then joined the Stoneham Sun as a full-time reporter. After five years with the Sun, as both reporter and editor, she left journalism to teach elementary school. Danielle obtained her master's degree from the University of Massachusetts – Boston while teaching in Malden. She also taught sixth grade in Marblehead, before jumping back into community journalism with Patch.
Karla Vallance, Contributor, Editor
Karla joined Patch in mid-2010 as a Boston-area regional editor, making the leap into hyperlocal news after years of focus on the national and international news fronts at The Christian Science Monitor, CNN and CNN International -- doing online news since 1998. She has lived in a neighborhood she loves, Jamaica Plain, for 19 years, with a stint in lovely Atlanta sandwiched in the middle. Beyond the news, she is, among other things, a (fair-weather) biker, a rabid Celtic music fan and an unabashed church nerd.
Danielle Masterson, Contributor
Since graduating from Boston University, Danielle has had two successful careers in news writing and teaching at the elementary school level. She loves to listen to music, crochet and read. She lives in the Greater Boston area with her husband and their two dogs, Jake and Chloe.
Kerri Dale, Calendar Editor
Kerri Dale lives in the greater Boston area with her husband and two children. After being a stay at home mom for 16 years she is very excited to be a part of Patch. She enjoys spending time with her family, boating and jetskiing.
Matthew Nucifora, Sales
Nathan Robillard, Advertising Manager
Nathan grew up in central New Hampshire and eventually moved to MA for College. He graduated with a BS in Media Communication and eventually moved to Boston where he started his career in media marketing and sales. He is an active runner, skier and beachgoer; basically if it happens in the outdoors, he's interested.
Grant Mukaï, Contributor
Grant began his interest in broadcast journalism when he was in high school after volunteering with a local television station in Northern Virginia. During his college days, Grant was a reporter for Boston University Television's Inside Boston, a student-run news show. He also worked for Kitay Productions at the Agganis Arena in Boston doing video production during sports events.
This past spring, Grant was an intern at WGBH (PBS) as the Antiques Roadshow Web Intern. He has also interned with Public Synergies and Rpublictv in Asnières-Sur-Seine, France (a suburb of Paris). Through this internship, Grant produced a variety of projects including multimedia presentations for a convention. He was also given the opportunity to see how the industry operates outside North America.
Chris Chirichiello, Contributor
Chris Chirichiello is a journalist for the Reading, Stoneham and Winchester Patch websites. He is a 2010 graduate of Stonehill College, where he studied business management and journalism.
Michele Taranto, Contributor, Editor
Jonathan Pickering, Contributor, Editor
Jonathan Pickering is a 27-year-old freelance writer living in Medford, MA. Jon was born and raised in Winchester and attended Emerson College where he got his BFA in writing, literature in publishing in 2007. Jon is excited about being able to cover his home town and expand his writing career. Jon has come to enjoy cats. For more on Jon, along with more of his writing, please visit his blog.
John Waller, Contributor, Editor
John got hooked on journalism as a Lexington High School junior covering Middlesex League sports for various local weeklies. He matriculated at Colby College in Maine where he studied English, ran track and cross country and wrote about White Mules athletics. After graduation, he became a staff writer at a Vermont daily and developed a passion for feature writing, especially profiles.
About Us
What is Patch?
Simply put, Patch is an innovative way to find out about, and participate in, what's going on near you.
We're a community-specific news, information and engagement platform driven by passionate and experienced new media professionals. Patch is revolutionizing the way neighbors connect with each other, their communities, and the national conversation.
We want to be the most trusted, comprehensive, and relevant news and information resource in your community. What can you do on Patch?
- Keep up with news and events
- Check out photos and videos from around town
- Learn more about local businesses and the people behind them
- Participate in discussions
- Share your perspectives via our Local Voices blogging platform
- Submit your own announcements, photos, and reviews
Who's Behind Patch?
Patch is run by professional editors, photographers, videographers, and salespeople who live in the regions they serve, and is supported by a great team in our New York City headquarters. Patch also gets advice from our Advisory Board and from many members of the community.
We look forward to meeting you and hearing your stories. If you see us around town, don't be afraid to say hi and tell us what you want to see on Patch!
Where You Come In
We hope that our sites will strengthen communities and improve the lives of their residents, but we can't do it without you. We've built Patch so that you have plenty of opportunities to comment on stories, share your opinions, post photos and announcements, and add events to the community calendar. So get to it! And if you're a business owner who wants to be listed, just let us know.
Giving Back
You can't truly serve a community unless you provide the help it needs most, which is why giving back is so important to us. We do it as part of our coverage — in a dedicated space that lets local charities and volunteers find each other — and with a program called "Give 5," through which we donate advertising space to charitable organizations and contribute our own time as volunteers. Want to know more? Email us at give5@patch.com.
Advisory Board
Phil Meyer
Phil Meyer is Professor Emeritus in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was inducted into the North Carolina Hall of Fame in Journalism in the spring of 2008. He joined the Journalism School in 1981 and served as Knight Chair in Journalism Professor from 1993-2008. Prior to joining the school, he held a number of reporter and research positions at various media outlets.
He has won numerous awards including the 2005 Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for Research About Journalism (with Scott Maier). He was named a Fellow of Society of Professional Journalists in 2005. In 2004, the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication gave him its Professional Freedom and Responsibility Award. And in 2000 he received the American Association for Public Opinion Research Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement.
Meyer is the author of several books including The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age and Precision Journalism: A Reporter’s Introduction to Social Science Methods. Journalism Quarterly in 2000 listed this book as one of the 35 significant books of the 20th century in journalism and mass communication; and the American Association for Public Opinion Research, observing its 50th anniversary in 1996, listed it as one of 50 significant books on public opinion research.
He received his B.S. in technical journalism from Kansas State University and his M.A. in political science from the University of North Carolina.
Steven Berlin Johnson
Steven Berlin Johnson is a pioneer in the web world, as a co-founder of FEED, Plastic.com, and Outside.in, which was acquired by Patch in March of 2011. He also co-created Findings.com, which launched in late 2011. Steven was the 2009 Hearst New Media Professional-in-Residence at The Journalism School at Columbia University, and served for several years as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU’s Journalism School. He is a bestselling author of seven books, and won acclaim and a Newhouse School Mirror Award for his 2010 Time Magazine cover story, "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live."
Speaking of Steven's editorial prowess, check out this video based on Steven's book, Where Good Ideas Come From, which was named one of the best books of 2010 by The Economist.
Brian Farnham, Founding Editor-in-Chief
Brian was Editor-in-Chief of Time Out New York magazine before coming to Patch. Before that he worked for a variety of publications both online and off, including Details magazine, New York Magazine, and the old, dearly departed Sidewalk.com. He has written for numerous publications, from the New York Times magazine to Harper's Bazaar. He graduated from Bowdoin College and got an MFA in creative writing at Columbia University so he could put his novel in a drawer with distinction. He lives in Manhattan with his beautiful wife, adorable son, angelic daughter and the world's most dog-like cat. He’s proud as hell of what the Patch team has built.
Ken Paulson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the First Amendment Center
Ken Paulson is president and chief executive officer of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and in Washington, D.C.
Previously, Paulson served as the editor and senior vice president/news of USA Today. He is now a columnist on USA Today’s board of contributors, writing about First Amendment issues and the news media.
Throughout his career, Paulson has drawn on his background as both a journalist and lawyer, serving as the editor or managing editor of newspapers in five different states.
He also is past-president of the American Society of News Editors, the nation’s largest organization of news media leaders.
Paulson also was the host of the Emmy-honored television program “Speaking Freely,” seen in more than 60 PBS markets nationwide over five seasons, and the author of "Freedom Sings," a multimedia stage show celebrating the First Amendment that continues to tour the nation's campuses.
He was an early advocate of making newspaper content available online, launching online newspapers in both Florida and New York in 1993.
For 12 years, Paulson was a regular guest lecturer at the American Press Institute, speaking to more than 5,000 journalists about First Amendment issues. He was honored with the API Lifetime Service Award. In 2010 and 2011, he served as chair of the PBS Editorial Standards Review Committee.
In 2007, Paulson was named fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists, “the highest honor SPJ bestows upon a journalist for extraordinary contributions to the profession.” In 2008, he received the Robert S. Abbott Memorial Award for Meritorious Service in Mass Communications from the Southern Regional Press Institute. He has also been elected to the Illini Publishing Hall of Fame at the University of Illinois.
He is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He also has served as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School. In 2008, he received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from American University.