David Ertischek was most recently the editor of the West Roxbury and Roslindale Transcripts for about a year before launching West Roxbury Patch. Prior to that he was the editor of local paper in Watertown for a year, and was a reporter/assistant editor/sports editor for the Transcripts for several years before his Watertown gig. 

Email: sara.jacobi@patch.com
Phone: 781-850-6741
Hometown: Attleboro, MA
Birthday: October 3rd
Bio A life-long Massachusetts resident, Sara grew up in Attleboro, attended school in Boston and now lives in Boston. Sara earned her bachelor's degree from Boston University, where she majored in Journalism and minored in International Relations. While a student at BU, Sara had the opportunity to intern for the Boston Metro and the Boston Globe, and she also began to freelance for the Allston-Brighton Tab, where she covered police and fire news. After graduation, Sara worked for two years as the sole staff writer of the property-casualty insurance publication, The Standard. Sara continued to freelance for the Allston-Brighton Tab until the summer of 2010, when she was hired as the editor of  the Wakefield Patch. Two years later, she was promoted to Senior Editor in Boston. She currently serves as editor of South End Patch and helps spearhead Boston-wide initiatives. 

In her free time, Sara plays Ultimate (Frisbee) for a nationally competitive women's club team, Brute Squad, which finished third in the entire country this past season. Ask her about it!

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.

I joined Patch in July 2010 and was founding editor of Jamaica Plain Patch in Boston. I now manage 11 Patch sites on the North Shore. I have 17 years of experience at newspapers as an editor and reporter. I live on Buffum Street in Salem with my wife, Jane; our dog, Molly; and two cats: Sophie and Carlos.

Cate is the editor of Mill Valley Patch, and has worked as a reporter at newspapers across New England. She joined Patch in Boston in 2010 and recently transferred to the San Francisco Bay area. She graduated from Saint Michael's College in Vermont with a degree in journalism and minor in Spanish.

I lived in New Hampshire my entire life before moving to Cambridge Jan. 1.

I graduated from the University of New Hampshire in '09 where I was a sports and news editor at The New Hampshire. I interned at the Daily News of Newburyport, Mass. and later freelanced for Seacoast Media Group before landing a full-time job covering Rochester and numerous surrounding communities for Foster's Daily Democrat. I gained a wealth of community news experience in my 14 months at Foster's and got to fully understand what N.H. folks people expect from their news sources.

Bret Silverberg graduated from Northeastern University's School of Journalism's graduate program in August 2010. Prior to that, Bret was the editor for the Needham Hometown Weekly Newspaper from 2006 to 2008. He took some time off from journalism to try his hand at a career in music for the next two years. After making one record and setting out for multple U.S. tours, he decided it was time to jump back into journalism. Bret freelanced heavily for the Jewish Advocate, Needham Patch (along with several other area Patches), and numerous other publications throughout 2009 and early 2010 while earning his Master's degree. Though he is fully invested in the world of journalism, he still likes to pick up a guitar from time to time. 

Becca Manning came to Patch from a small family-run publishing company on the South Shore where she was the editor of a weekly newspaper in Pembroke, MA. Before that, she worked for several years as the education and government reporter for the Piqua Daily Call in Piqua, OH, not far from her hometown. She has a bachelor's of science in journalism from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism with an environmental studies certificate. When not covering the town of Charlestown, Becca writes fiction, enjoys reading, spends time at the beach and tries not to burn down the kitchen when she cooks.

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 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.

Shannon Reidy Boston Senior Advertising Manager for Patch.com shannon.reidy@patch.com 857-498-3272

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 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 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 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.