Return of Computer Science Meets Community Journalism

A couple of weeks ago I posted an item about how computer science and community journalism are coming together. Yesterday I came across a help wanted ad for computer programers to work on a community journalism project being run by a company called Patch. It sounds like what is being proposed is something that would be based out of New York City with single reporters covering each community. Here's a story from Forbes.com about Patch. Is this the future of community journalism? And if so, how do we feel about it?