AOL's Patch debuted in Washington state today, bringing its emerging national network of community news sites into a region with an abundance of established "hyperlocal" online news operations.

But that doesn't mean AOL is going to war with the likes of MyBallard, West Seattle Blog, Capitol Hill Seattle, or other popular news operations in Seattle's urban neighborhoods -- at least not for now. The first Patch site in the state, in University Place in Pierce County, reflects AOL's strategy of primarily targeting suburban communities.

Editors of established hyperlocal sites in the region are mixed in their reaction to Patch's debut. Justin Carder of Capitol Hill Seattle expresses respect for AOL's approach, and Tracy Record of West Seattle Blog calls it another example of a corporation applying a misguided, "cookie-cutter" model to community journalism.

For its push into the state, AOL is tapping veteran journalists with roots in the community. Its first regional editor in the state is Mike Lewis, who worked for years at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before the newspaper's closure. (Disclosure: My TechFlash colleague John Cook and I worked with Mike Lewis at the Seattle P-I, and remain in touch.) The editor of the University Place site is Brent Champaco, who grew up in the region and covered the same community as part of his prior role as a reporter for The News-Tribune of Tacoma.

With its suburban focus, Patch appears to be more of a challenge to Fisher Communications, parent of KOMO-TV and KOMO Radio, which has blanketed the region with its KOMO Communities blogs in Seattle and its suburbs. Fisher partners with Bellevue-based DataSphere Technologies for its advertising platform, and the companies have licensed their technology as a template for other stations around the country. Fisher has stirred controversy for some of its advertising and editorial practices, coming under criticism in the past for sourcing material from other news sites, without credit in some cases.

In contrast, Patch editors are being asked to focus heavily on original reporting -- linking to others, when appropriate, but doing their own digging, not simply relying on others for source material. Champaco, for example, talks about his grassroots approach to reporting in this video.

"That’s going to hopefully distinguish us from some of the other efforts," Lewis said.

Lewis is spending much of his time in management right now, especially in hiring, but the former "Under the Needle" columnist hopes to ultimately carve out time to write for Patch, as well, once things are up and running.

Patch plans to roll out three more sites in Washington around the end of October -- in Bellevue, Lakewood and Mercer Island -- as part of an first-wave rollout of 24 sites in all. In addition to journalists, AOL is hiring a general manager/publisher for the region, and a sales staff.

Patch has been criticized for creating a "sweatshop" work environment, but Lewis said that hasn't been his experience. Patch staffers are expected to work hard to cover their communities -- in some cases putting in more hours than in traditional newspaper jobs -- but in many ways that's the nature of online news.

Justin Carder, of the Capitol Hill Blog and the Neighborlogs blogging platform, alluded to past controversies with Fisher when asked for his thoughts on AOL's debut here. Here's what he said, via email.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I'm excited to have the Patch effort start here. If I'm going to get beat, I want to get beat by fair play and I respect that AOL is investing on both the content and community side of the equation and in ad sales. Other large efforts are 95% ad driven and 100% cynical attempts at extending the worst of big media 'news' into the community news space. I don't know if Patch will be successful but I won't be worried about their cold call shop damaging the blossoming local advertising environment.

Tracy Record, editor of the popular West Seattle Blog, said her take on Patch is the same as her take on other large corporations moving into the hyperlocal space. Here's what Record said, also via email.

The community news space is not well-served by corporate marauders. Take a look at the dozens of community-hatched, community-nurtured news sites around Puget Sound alone -- see their unique personalities, the unique ways the community responds to them and works with them. (And our area is not alone -- I recently was at the Block by Block national summit of independent community news sites -- every one unique, distinct, reflective of its community.) You cannot serve communities' unique needs with a cookie-cutter design/philosophy and centralized big-corporation oversight. Big Business took decades to slash-and-burn old media, and it saddens me that they are moving in so fast to try to do the same with online-only community news.

We've left messages for Fisher Communications execs, to get the company's take on AOL's Patch entering its home market, and we'll update this post with the response.

Update: Matt Spragins, general manager of the Fisher Interactive Network, offers this statement via email.

"Given Fisher Communications' position as the established market leader, we are very comfortable with the head start we have. Patch is available in one neighborhood with plans a for a few more while KOMO has been publishing content and engaging users in 54 communities for almost a year now. Our ability to leverage the resources of the KOMO brand to grow audience and serve our communities is an advantage. KOMO news has established more than 50 years of trust with our viewers, users and advertisers. Any national company is going to struggle to build a user base without that built-in local audience and brand."

On Twitter, Paul Balcerak notes that we overlooked PNWLocalNews among the local news sites that Patch will be competing against. For what it's worth, SeattlePI.com also has neighborhood blogs, written by readers, and the Seattle Times has forged partnerships with hyperlocal news sites in the region. Feel free to point out any others worthy of mention in the comments below.