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Baristanet Rips Patch

Baristanet's Debra Galant tore into the competition in this interview she did with StreetfightMag.com (via Romenesko). Here's the money quote:

"How do you regard Patch, generally? Do you think a company like AOL can really get into local communities?

Patch certainly rubs all of the independents the wrong way. Patch is part of AOL, and they can do things like hire real journalists, and they can go to meetings, and do everything right. But it is still like Wal-Mart coming into main street. The profits are going to a corporation. And so it’s difficult. It makes us understand what the local merchants are dealing with on a regular basis, for different local hardware stores to be competing against Home Depot. It’s basically the same thing.

So, can they do it right? They can do some reporting. They can get content. Their directories are very good. But, can they have the moral high ground? No.

You know, in the battle over local there is sort of a question of if local is just where your GPS says you are at this moment? Or is local the relationship that has grown up over years with people in the same community? So, that’s this big sort of battle right now."

Not exactly a confident defense of her property. She's kind of saying: "they put out a better web site than us - have better content, employ journalists - but we are better people!"