The Weather Channel, since its start in 1982, has certainly earned some hard core fans. Weather addicts, if you will, who can’t get enough of watching every system come through. The network has even launched a superstar or two. Face it – if you see that Jim Cantore is coming to report live from your town, you know you’re in for a serious storm.
However, viewers are becoming surfers; foregoing the 24-hour network and choosing instead to jump online to get their forecasts, storm updates, and radar graphics. To keep up with the shift, the channel’s website, weatherchannel.com, has had to become its own moving front, finding new ways to attract and keep visitors. So far, they have been able to succeed; in a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article, it’s said that traffic to the site has doubled thanks to the creativity of their editorial staff.
Creativity? Writing about weather? Yes and no. New ideas are introduced daily, but more often than not they have nothing to do with the weather. The concepts are called “weather adjacent” according to the site’s editor-in-chief, Neil Katz, who is quoted in the article as saying that while the network has always struggled with the issue of generating compelling content on non-weather-event days, they are now pointing resources toward the problem.
The answer has come in the forms of special features like “A Gallery of City Skylines, Then and Now” and “What Does Mars Smell Like?” Topics whose visuals and catchy headlines provide clickable material for even the casual forecast checker.
In adapting so successfully, weather.com has proven what many businesses know; that to stay relevant in a competitive market – and to hang on to shrinking attention spans – changes need to be strategically planned and executed.
Know Your Weaknesses
Strengths are great, but if weather.com had simply accepted the diminishing interest in their traditional content as part of the ever changing media landscape and chosen to stay the course, they would have been left out in the rain (pun intended). By acknowledging that their content alone was not enough to compete, they were able to troubleshoot the issue.
Don’t Be Afraid to Test the Borders
A feature on “12 Spooky Abandoned Hospitals and Asylums” might not be the first to come to mind for a weather channel, but it sure got attention for them. By thinking weather – fall – Halloween – spooky places, the site’s writers didn’t hesitate to push the content to its limits, capturing views in the process.
Dedicate Resources
According to the Bloomberg Businessweek article, weather.com content producers are not meteorologists, they are writers. They gather for editorial meetings and pitch stories like a news staff whose creativity is not only welcomed but encouraged. In addition to the editor-in-chief, there is a health editor, a travel editor, and other specialized staffers who each bring something to the table. When weather.com decided to switch gears and bring new content to the site, they didn’t do it half-heartedly. See a problem, put some resources against it.
If you are struggling with the challenges posed by an ever-changing media landscape, we can help. Our PR specialists can help you strategize the best route to take and regenerate the creativity needed to travel it successfully. Give us a call at 203.762.8833 and let’s get started.
– BML
