Following local news; Changes in Gazette community pages; Gazette v. Patch

Announcement from Gazette.Net, 10 Jun 2011:

Gazette.Net has moved to a new content management system and due to some technical challenges during the transition, you may experience difficulties accessing stories on parts of our site. We are working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience.

The Gazette has apparently reorganized its community pages as part of the change.

The "News by community" menu contains the same thirteen Prince George's County communities, but they now link to only four unique Gazette pages, compared to seven unique Prince George's County Patch sites.

The Gazette does seem to report news from most of the county, including communities not named explicitly, while Patch reporting is generally limited to the named communities, which are all in the northern and eastern parts of the county, with no Patch sites for the central and western areas of the county.

My experience in trying to follow county news has been that Patch generally makes it much easier to find daily news updates, especially with their use of Twitter and RSS feeds, while the Gazette tends to do a better job (if you can figure out what is new) of covering the county as a whole, education issues, and the whole central and western half of the county, especially the areas inside and near the Beltway southwest of Martin Luther King Avenue (MD 704) and outside the Beltway south of Pennsylvania Avenue (MD 4).

Gazette Community Pages
Menu	Page title and link
Bowie	Bowie (http://www.gazette.net/section/bowie)
Clinton	Upper Marlboro/Clinton {http://www.gazette.net/section/uppermarlboro}
College Park	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Fort Washington	Upper Marlboro/Clinton {http://www.gazette.net/section/uppermarlboro}
Greenbelt	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Hyattsville	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Landover	Largo/Lanham/Landover (http://www.gazette.net/section/largo}
Lanham	Largo/Lanham/Landover (http://www.gazette.net/section/largo}
Largo	Largo/Lanham/Landover (http://www.gazette.net/section/largo}
Laurel	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
New Carrollton	Largo/Lanham/Landover (http://www.gazette.net/section/largo}
Port Towns	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Upper Marlboro	Upper Marlboro/Clinton {http://www.gazette.net/section/uppermarlboro}
Compaison of Named Patch and Gazette Sites
Patch	Gazette
Bowie (http://bowie.patch.com)	Bowie (http://www.gazette.net/section/bowie)
College Park (http://collegepark.patch.com)	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Greenbelt (http://greenbelt.patch.com)	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Hyattsville (http://hyattsville.patch.com)	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Laurel (http:/laurel.patch.com)	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Riverdale Park (http://riverdalepark.patch.com)	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
University Park (http://riverdalepark.patch.com)	Laurel/College Park/Hyattsville (http://www.gazette.net/section/laurel)
Upper Marlboro (http://uppermarlboro.patch.com)	Upper Marlboro/Clinton {http://www.gazette.net/section/uppermarlboro}
No Patch site	Largo/Lanham/Landover (http://www.gazette.net/section/largo}