Tuesday, April 11, 2006
TWC Bringing Meteorologists to Web
Source:MultiChannel The Weather Channel will launch video forecasts on weather.com (www.weather.com) for the top 25 cities May 1, replete with walking, talking and gesturing meteorologists, as on television.“Our Web site is geared toward the middle-of-the-road” user, who is more interested in getting information easily than manipulating a lot of data, vice president of broadband products and distribution Jody Fennell said, meaning watching people whom they trust tell them what's going on in the world outside their doors.
“It's the connection with that person actually interpreting the data for you and telling you what it means” that matters, director of broadband programming Tony Grohovsky added.
Approximately seven different meteorologists will be employed to deliver 90-second video forecasts for cities ranging from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago to Portland (Ore.), Baltimore and Indianapolis. Among familiar names likely to be found in the rotation: Mark Mancuso, Adam Berg and Sarah Libby, Fennell and Grahovsky said on the floor of the National Show here.
But unlike local broadcast TV, no single announcer will become the face of a given city, even though “it's something we've contemplated,” Fennell said. “It's more the interpretive power” of seeing and hearing a weather person in action that viewers find useful, she added, “than it is the person itself.”
The meteorologists will, however, be encouraged to localize the forecasts as much as possible. References to and conditions for local sporting events, festivals and other activities will be worked into the video forecasts, which will be free of charge on weather.com. The local forecasts will be adapted for mobile devices in 60-second versions.
Costs of the service will be covered by advertising -- Fennell said parent Landmark Communications Inc. could expect to see the investment in weather people for the Web pay back within a year.
# posted by ATN @ 10:32 PM 
