Phone: 941-321-2400

Email: jason.bartolone@patch.com

Hometown: Hamilton, NJ

Jason is an Associate Regional Editor with Patch's Florida team and manages the Patch sites in Clearwater, Dunedin, Largo Patch, Palm Harbor, East Lake, Safety Harbor and Tarpon Springs. Before that he served as Local Editor of Bradenton Patch, helping launch the site in December 2010, as well as working closely with other Patch sites around Tampa Bay.

Before joining Patch, Jason spent more than eight years working at daily newspapers in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as a reporter, copy editor, page designer, sports columnist, blogger and podcaster. He graduated with a B.A. in journalism from Penn State University and served in a variety of roles at the school's nationally recognized Daily Collegian student newspaper. He also interned at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as part of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internship program.

Most recently, Jason spent five years at the Bradenton Herald working in several positions, including Page 1A designer and editor. He's also been an on-air radio personality and host.

He and his wife are proud New Jersey natives who are still on the lookout for authentic pizza in Florida after seven years living and working here.

I wish I could say I was born with a camera in my hand, but the truth is that I picked up an old camera my parents were going to throw away when I was seven years old. Ever since then, I’ve been shooting and trying to take photos of anything I could. My love of photography led to a love of writing and reporting on things of importance. I spent some time in the U.S. Army as a Public Affairs Specialist and worked for the St. Petersburg Times and tbt.

Email leigh.armstrong@patch.com

Phone (727) 204-7371

Hometown South Lyon, Michigan

Birthday October 20, 1984

Chris is a Regional Editor for Patch in South Florida. His coverge area includes Sarasota, Bradenton and Hillsborough County. He works with Local Editors at Patch to ensure that visitors are getting news, events and information that matter to them and their daily lives. He is a proud graduate of UCF in Orlando, Florida.  He is also an award winning news photographer who has also worked as a journalist and newsroom manager for the last 10 years. Chris has worked in television, print and online news throughout his career and is passionate about telling stories that are useful to the audience.  Before joining Patch, Chris was the Audience Editor for TBO.com in Tampa, Florida, where he was in charge of the online production staff and managed planning stories and coverage for the website.

Chris, his wife and two young daughters live in Riverview, Florida. 

David Driver has covered all levels of sports in Maryland for more than 15 years, from rec sports to high school to college and the pros. He has worked for community newspapers in Laurel, Howard County and Northern Virginia, was the first sports editor of the daily Baltimore Examiner and was a copy editor for the Prince George's Journal. He can be reached at davidsdriver@aol.com or through his website.

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.