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How To Boost Your Station’s Weather Appeal

by Terry Segal on August 4, 2009

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in Weather

weather-crawl1
photo by Elsie esq.

Weather news is considered a top priority for viewers. Stations have responded by investing heavily in the latest technology to showcase their commitment.

Yet, a simpler and less expensive option exists to accomplish the same goal. Its use demonstrates your commitment to viewer satisfaction.

Why not run a forecast driven weather crawl throughout the news program?

What’s the purpose in making viewers wait for information they consider a priority?

The forecast driven weather crawl would display:

  • wakeup forecast
  • next day forecast
  • 5-7 day forecast
  • current temperature (showcase local points of interest)

The current temperature bug that is widely is too limited in meeting the real demand for weather news. The forecast driven weather crawl contains the details that viewers require.

The disadvantage? Some would argue it eliminates the need to watch the weather segment. The crawl provides all the key information.

This argument places the interests of the station above those of its viewers. That approach comes across as short-sighted.

Today you need to create and seize every competitive advantage.

The advantage?

Customer satisfaction of the highest order. Viewers get the information they want in the most convenient fashion. No waiting. No need to deal with a rigid schedule.

Any business attuned to fulfilling customer desires stands to succeed.

Gone are the days when viewers had to adjust their schedules to fit yours. So many options today give the audience alternatives. You lose viewers when you fail to meet expectations.

You recognize that weather news is a priority for viewers. Give it to them in a way that shows you acknowledge that importance.

A parallel exists in the cable sports arena.

Look how well the crawl concept works for ESPN’s SportsCenter. This highlight program uses a crawl to give the latest scores and news throughout the telecast. Nothing is held back to protect stories that run later in the program.

Satisfying the viewer’s hunger for information takes top priority at ESPN. Consider it one of the keys to its success.

You can do the same at your station. Make weather news accessible and “on demand” during your newscasts. Use the forecast driven weather crawl. Demonstrate that you’re fully attuned to what your viewers want most.

They’ll reward you for doing so.

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A Better Life

by Terry Segal on July 28, 2009

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in Ideas

A Better Life
photo by D Sharon Pruitt

Times are tough for many people. Even in good times, people need help navigating through life. Viewers face decisions regarding money, health, kids, work, etc. daily.

Why not give them a helping hand and stamp yourself as a station involved with its audience? Seize the opportunity to give them relevant information and showcase your web savvy at the same time.

Here’s the idea. I call it  A Better Life.

Three families are profiled and followed over a 3-4 month period as they get specialized help from a team of experts. These people work in concert with each other as they give families sound, practical advice to meet life’s challenges head on.

Viewers can apply the lessons and advice to their own situation. The families help personalize the concepts. They also create a bonding opportunity for the audience. It’s likely each family will create a following among different subgroups in your audience.

You can migrate the information to a special page on your website that provides videos, workbooks and interactive blogs to get viewers further involved. The web component adds heft to the project. It also drives more traffic to your website.

A Better Life gives the station a consistent and highly promotable feature. It gives viewers a reason to tune in and follow along. The right mix of families creates an ongoing story arc for your station. One that viewers will follow to its completion.

Best of all, its sales friendly.

Find sponsors to help with off channel promotion and the collateral provided to viewers. Make the project pay for itself and more.

Create A Team of Experts

Assemble a team of experts. Include a financial planner, family practice doctor, nutritionist, technologist, psychologist, and career counselor.

These experts will provide advice on money, health, diet, technology (how to use and buy it), interpersonal issues, and work/career concerns. These topics represent key areas of concern for both the families and your audience.

The experts can also help you choose the families. They’ll add insight and a different perspective to the selection process.

Choose Three Families

Select three families to profile. Choose families that provide diversity in terms of children (ages) and occupations.

At least two families should have children. It’s best that one have younger kids while the other should have at least one in high school. The age range adds more variety to potential topics.

Check your market profile. If your market has a large percentage of childless households, pick one as your third profile. Otherwise, you can select a third family with kids.

Develop The On-Air Product

Plan on producing three packages each week. Each family will be showcased in one of their own reports. Because their situations are different, viewers will see more than one expert at work during the week. They’ll also see them deal with a range of issues (including ones pertinent to their situation).

The experts meet with each family to assess their situation and lend advice. The goal? Provide a game plan that gives recipients a feeling of confidence and control.

Families are given projects to complete. Timelines to gauge progress are created.

Viewers can judge their success as the weeks roll on. They’ll notice the changes taking place – both good and bad.

Integrate The Web

On-air engages the audience. The web deepens the involvement. It provides an interactive platform for letting viewers take part in the project.

Use the web to reinforce key concepts and give viewers hands-on opportunities that promote deeper meaning.

Here’s how:

  • Archive video for catching up on missed episodes and repeat viewing
  • Provide PDF transcripts for those wanting to review concepts in print
  • Create a slide show of any graphics or charts used in the episodes
  • Provide PDF workbooks of key exercises used in the episodes
  • Have each family create a blog detailing their progress during the week
  • Have experts provide more detail, when appropriate, via blog or PDF
  • Provide outtakes that add more information and/or color
  • Provide a short video conversation with family members during the week
  • Provide bios of each family and experts

Recognize The Sales Potential

This project lends itself to sponsorship. It provides a positive, feel good environment.

Its duration will keep a sponsor’s name in front of viewers for a good period of time. All collateral material (slides, workbooks, etc.) can include sponsor identification, extending visibility off-channel after the project ends.

Talk to sales.

Recognize The Value

Ambitious? Yes.

A Better Life requires a great deal of planning, follow-through, and commitment. My guess is those requirements will scare away many stations.

You’re different. You want highly promotable and relevant material in your newscast. You want to engage your audience. You see the value in projects that marry on-air with an internet component.

Go do it.

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What News Producers Can Learn From Entertainment Tonight

by Terry Segal on July 23, 2009

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in Presentation

News Producers and ET
photo by kevindooley

What program should news producers study to learn how to engage viewers? It also shines in terms of teaching structure, branding, and how to make a program “sticky” by effective teasing.

It’s not a traditional newscast. It’s Entertainment Tonight – the best produced news/entertainment program on television.

Watch a few episodes. Put aside any negative feelings you have regarding the value of celebrity news. Instead, focus on the mechanics of ET – its relentless focus on keeping the attention of viewers. Learn to apply these techniques to your newscast.

First, let’s dispense with the argument that they can do it because ET has a bigger production budget than you. That’s true, but the issue here doesn’t involve money alone.

Instead, it centers on how the “sausage is made.” A focus on basic building blocks for audience retention. Even with a smaller budget you can still apply most of ET’s tactics for keeping viewers tuned in.

Money allows ET to look flashier than you, but that camouflages what’s at the heart of the program’s success. It knows how to keep an audience involved and wanting to come back for more.

Notice how well ET does the following:

Establish Program Franchises

ET never misses an opportunity to run packages wrapped in a program franchise. Past and present, ET has used ET Insider, ET Investigation, ET Alert and Real or Rumor? These franchise designations give each story special treatment in the viewer’s eyes.

They also create value. ET selects franchises that showcase topics of great interest to viewers. Franchises remind the audience of an ongoing commitment to cover desired news topics. ET builds its reputation every time they run.

Franchises have played a key role in building the ET brand.

Evaluate your use of franchises. Review your story selection over a week to see what subjects get the most attention. Identify overlooked franchise opportunities. Make a concerted effort to provide niche or highly promotable segments. They serve the same purpose.

Use customized opens to introduce the stories. You can also use lower-thirds and OTS’s to visually cue viewers.

Highlight Exclusives

ET never misses an opportunity to showcase its exclusives. ET consistently highlights stories and interviews available only on its program. This practice is another reputation builder for ET.

There’s value in promoting your program as the only source for stories and interviews. It reminds the audience they made a wise choice in watching you. After all, you’re providing more than the other guys.

Do you label your exclusives? Do you make a committed effort toward getting them?

Do both.

Tease Deep – Tease Often

This practice illustrates ET at its best. ET uses a tease strategy that makes viewers want to watch stories at the end of the program as much as those at the beginning.

Later items are teased throughout the program. Different footage is sometimes used; other times, it’s a full screen graphic. The goal – build audience anticipation. Turn all stories into “can’t miss” items.

This tactic also gives viewers a continuing rundown of stories. Consider it a full program tease. It’s a deliberate strategy to keep viewers informed.

Most stations only tease the upcoming story out of break. Little attention is paid to building viewer anticipation beyond the next story.

Some are experimenting with sidebar menus birthed by ESPN’s SportsCenter and Pardon The Interruption. They’re a good start. But these attempts lack visual punch.

Consider the importance of getting this strategy right. You’re competing with a myriad of competitors and off channel diversions. You’re asking viewers to commit from 30 to 60 minutes of attention (the majority don’t even come close) without knowing what’s in store for them. You’re banking that they trust you’ll make it worthwhile.

Show them it is.

Tease Effectively

ET’s tease strategy is bolstered the quality of its teases. Well written with an emphasis on using questions to increase viewer curiosity. Here’s a recent one – “There’s a new Michael Jackson mystery. Where is Michael’s body?”

ET knows its viewers and its teases play to their emotions. They connect and increase the likelihood of keeping an audience. Here’s an example – “The stage mom that will have you yelling at the TV.” Only a few ET viewers would pass on that type of story.

You must know your audience and its hot buttons to write effective teases. Carefully select items that will arouse viewer curiosity. Feel free to group several stories under one tease if it makes the tease more interesting.

The mechanics of writing effective tease will be covered in an upcoming post.

The ability to engage viewers is the hallmark of any successful program. Few programs, if any, do it better than Entertainment Tonight.

Watch and learn.

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How To Own Your Top Story

by Terry Segal on July 7, 2009

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in Presentation

Top Story
photo by Bob Jagendorf

You’ve got your top story for this evening. Now, go own it. Treating the top news story with a single reporter package adds nothing to your news “cred.” The other guys are taking the same approach.

Be different. You need to provide more insight and value. Give viewers additional items. You need to own the story. Here are five ways to make it happen:

Personalize the story

How does the story affect people? Report the event through a personal story.

Find a parent affected by the cutback in school lunches. Find a commuter affected by the road closure. Find a business owner affected by the utility rate hike.

News becomes more relevant when people put a face on developments. People relate to people, not disconnected ideas.

Put the news into context

What does it mean? Make sure viewers understand the impact of events on their lives. Experts can help with tricky subjects.

Talk to a financial planner on what employees can do with retirement accounts after a local plant announces its closure. Speak to a defense attorney to explain legal options for a person just indicted for a crime. Let a consumer affairs expert outline warranty options for car owners after the local dealership has shuttered.

Make the package more than a “talking head.” Personalize the story. Interaction between the affected party and the expert can add a human touch.

Add perspective

How did we get to this place? Giving the history and/or background of events leading up to the news can prove illuminating. A history lesson is warranted for events that have taken months or years to unfold.

Background stories showcase your grasp of issues. They provide viewers with a timeline that highlights your news depth and commitment.

Look forward

Where do we go from here? A news event is often the first step in a long journey. Give viewers a look into that future. Twists and turns may await them – make sure that you point them out.

Suppose your city council just increased property taxes. Will the property tax hike force more foreclosures? Will businesses find the city too expensive for relocation? What city services are likely to avoid cutbacks? Will revenue from this hike protect the city’s bond rating?

Viewers don’t expect that you have a magic crystal ball. You can’t predict the future, but you can alert them to its possibilities.

Get viewers involved

Ask for immediate feedback from viewers. Internet polling, email solicitation, Twitter reaction, etc. provide a hi-tech “man on the street” equivalent. Give your audience a feel for how fellow viewers are reacting.

Today’s viewers want to participate in news. They’re aware that you can make this involvement happen. Seize the opportunity.

Savvy businesses recognize that customer interaction is now a two-way channel. Consumer loyalty and satisfaction is highly influenced by the quality of that dialogue.

Provide opportunities for viewers to interact with you. Stations providing that connection will ultimately prosper.

Every station has a top story. It’s often the same item across all stations on a
given night. Your job is to convince viewers that your presentation offers more value and insight. Otherwise, why watch?

Make a difference. Own your top story.

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Warning! News Viewers Take Control

by Terry Segal on July 3, 2009

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in Insight

control
photo by altemark

The shrinking audiences and revenue that buffet local news mirror the wrenching changes being felt in other businesses. The underlying reason is important to note for it has fundamentally changed the way consumers interact with your product.

You are no longer in control. Your customers, your viewers, are.

Before the internet, many businesses operated in and benefited from an era of economic scarcity. This arrangement meant that consumers had limited options for satisfying their needs. They were often restricted to local merchants and product inventories that carried only the most popular choices.

Someone with distinct or unusual demands had a difficult time finding products, if they could be found at all. Business innovation and risk taking was stunted because the prevailing conditions generated satisfactory profits.

Business – especially television – used to control the playing field. Not anymore.

People have now gained control over their viewing behavior. Look at how your business has changed. It’s morphed from viewers having a choice of three to four channels to hundreds. The act of watching video has moved from one device (TV) to many (desktop, notebook, smartphone, iPod, slingbox, etc.)

People now have a choice of when to watch, thanks to TiVo, VOD, Hulu, TV.com, etc. Your website grants them access to news 24/7.

Heavens…news now gets distributed without you as the middleman. The role that Twitter played in the Iranian election protests is a harbinger of things to come. The issue isn’t how big a role that Twitter actually played as it was its unquestioned ability to spread information. That has significant implications for you regarding live, breaking coverage.

The age of economic scarcity has ended. Viewers now have the upper hand in determining how they feed their information appetite.

Access to news has exploded beyond its availability on your channel at 5p, 6p, 10p, or 11p. Mobile alerts, email notification, and web updates keep viewers continuously informed. Your station represents only one ship in a sea of options.

How is your news effort adapting to this new situation? Does your station…

  • have multiple options to alert viewers to breaking news?
  • provide more than warmed over video on its website?
  • recognize that a viewer’s relationship with news has become more participatory?
  • understand that viewers expect more and are less forgiving when you fall short?
  • recognize that your on-air newscast is just one platform in a world where multiple options have become the norm?
  • understand how powerful the concepts of immediacy and convenience have become to news consumers?

Your world has changed. And it’s not going back to the way it was.

Adapt your news strategy and tactics to this change. Ignore it at your own peril.

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Beware This News Format

by Terry Segal on July 2, 2009

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in Presentation

Beware News Format
photo by kevindooley

Imagine you’re a comedian giving a thirty minute show. Would you use all of your best jokes in the first ten minutes only to limp through the remainder of your program?

Of course not. You’d gain a reputation as being light on material. Your approach means a promising career never gets off the ground. No headliner status for you.

Stations unwittingly do the same when they use “11@11″, or some variant of it, when formatting and marketing their late news (if you’re unfamiliar with “11 @11″, the format promises to deliver the key news and weather, commercial free, within a specified number of minutes at the top of the newscast). The implied viewer benefit is convenience because the station respects the audience’s time. Especially at this late hour.

Stations never use the format for an extended period of time. No surprise – it doesn’t pay off. It’s a flawed strategy. A lot of time and money go to waste.

You can’t build a business when you devalue the very product you’re selling. In this case, it’s your news reputation.

Viewers get the wrong message despite the good intentions. Stations think the audience will appreciate the opportunity to watch for a limited time and still feel fully informed.

The real viewer takeaway?

Your newscast is bloated with fill. It lacks substance and value. If a viewer only has to watch for eleven minutes, what does that say about the news value of the other two-thirds?

Not much.

The concept inflicts more damage than competitors ever did to your late news image.

Find better ways to differentiate your news.

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Three Things to Avoid in Late News Updates

by Terry Segal on June 30, 2009

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in Presentation

Late News
photo by tomt6788

It’s not good for business or morale when the late newscast rehashes the earlier program. Stations use a variety of tactics to give each a distinct flavor. Yet, efforts to distinguish between the two sometimes cause more harm than good. It’s time again to question certain news conventions.

“New” is a Double Edged Sword

Some stations flag stories in their late newscast with the tag, “New at 11″ or “New at 10″. I don’t get it. What does that say about the other stories? Are they “old?”

The solution? Tag stories from to convey a “bonus” orientation rather than setting up an old vs. new comparison. You still get credit for updated late news material without diminishing the value of other stories.

The purpose in tagging such material is to demonstrate that the late news is not a repeat of the earlier edition. Alert viewers to new material and you convince them of that fact.

Yet the terminology seems contradictory. It emphasizes the problem rather than correcting it. Stations don’t flag any stories in their earlier newscast with tags like “New at 6″ or “New at 5.”

How about “11:00 Extra” or “More at 11″ or “11:00 Bonus”? All suggest that you’ve added these stories to the late program. You also avoid hinting that the other news is a carryover from earlier in the day.

Whatever you call it, make sure the news is truly fresh for the late broadcast. I’m writing this post after watching a local station introduce video shot during the afternoon as a “New Development.” in their late news. No updated copy or reporter tag. It’s not a “New Development” at 11pm if your video was shot at 12 noon and not updated.

Live Reports Leave Reporters Stranded

What’s wrong with the following technique used to make the late news appear more updated? A reporter does a live shot at the scene of a story that ran earlier in the day. The reporter stands in front of a darkened building that viewers are unable to see. The reporter makes reference to the building by pointing over his or her shoulder as if to convince viewers of its location.

The reporter intros the package which features daytime footage. The package often runs without re-editing from its earlier version. The reporter signs off and the anchor moves on to another story.

The live component looks forced as viewers wonders why the reporter is placed in front of a location they can’t see. Little is added in the way of new information. Truth is, the story could easily have been delivered in-studio or even by an anchor leadin.

Wouldn’t it validate the live component if the anchor asked the reporter a question that updated developments? Why send a reporter live offsite and then not interact with him or her?

You need to use live trucks to justify their purchase. You also need to use them in a fashion that better showcases their value to viewers.

Weather Recap Woes

Someone once said that weathercasts aren’t history lessons. Nowhere is that truer than in the late evening. Viewers are focused on tomorrow – especially parents and commuters looking for early morning conditions. Focus your weathercast on giving viewers a look ahead. That’s where their attention lies.

Recaps of highs/lows around the viewing area come across as old news. So does an almanac of the day’s conditions. This issue is even more pertinent when weather conditions fall within the norms. You’re giving viewers even less valuable information when taking this approach.

A day featuring extraordinary conditions doesn’t change the orientation of late evening weather. Such conditions warrant coverage earlier in the newscast.

Make sure the weathercast focuses on the future. That’s true for every weathercast, but especially so late night. It’s not the time of day for a look back.

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Grow Your News With Niche Content

by Terry Segal on June 29, 2009

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in Insight

Niche Content
photo by tinou bao

You’ve heard it a million times – we live in a niche world. The internet has both broadened our world and shrunk it at the same time. You can drill down to the most specific qualifier (organic, free trade, South American, ground, decaffeinated coffee) and not feel limited by the physical location of the supplier. You want it, you got it.

Your viewers can satisfy almost any taste or desire, no matter how unusual.

TV news struggles against this backdrop. Its business model embraces that of the mass merchant. The aim is deliver tonnage. Precision is not a criteria.

Carving the audience into 18-49 and 25-54 segments doesn’t qualify as niche
marketing. Never did. I used to remind people that Grace Slick of Jefferson
Airplane and Tricia Nixon both fell into the women 18-49, college educated, high socioeconomic demo. How precise is that?

The current sales model for local TV news won’t support further slicing of the audience. It’s geared to delivering as many bodies as possible.

So, the product continues to aim at being all things to all people. Too many
stations run similar stories and offer almost identical weather forecasts. News formats run together with even commercial breaks occurring at the same time.

The trend is toward offering more sameness. Video news sharing arrangements have sprouted in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Tampa to name a few. Will the process free up resources to craft other stories, or simply be used to cut costs?

Mass is becoming smaller now. It’s time to think niche to get bigger.

How Niche Thinking Succeeds

Incorporating niche thinking into the sales process may be difficult. Not so in the programming and production arena. Your ability to grow news ratings depends on your success in adding niche content to your news.

Forget about appealing to your entire DMA. Especially if you’re chasing the news leader. They already beat you there.

Recognize there are pockets and clusters of viewers within your market that are receptive to newscasts that meet their interests. They’re waiting for you. Target them and satisfy their demands.

Here are two such examples from my days at GOCOM. KSPR was a distant third in news in Springfield, Missouri. Springfield is a midsize market from a population standpoint, but a big one in terms of geographic area.

Our niche solution was to concentrate our news coverage in Springfield and cede the rest of the DMA to the competition. The station became totally Springfield-centric. Our news trucks never left this defined area.

We even produced other local programming that highlighted Springfield activities. The station soon recorded its highest news ratings in history.

The newscast also began with a one minute weather segment that gave viewers a complete seven day forecast. Right at the top. If you wanted weather news, you didn’t have to wait. This segment didn’t tease the forecast, it gave you the details in full glory.

Springfield news and weather – the news niche. The station got bigger by thinking smaller.

Thnking niche drove our Chico, California station from third place to first in news in one rating book.

Chico stations compete in a split market with Redding and Chico. We identified that the viewers living between both cities in the area called North Valley felt underserved by all news stations.

Our news effort focused on this area and its viewers. The station even changed its call letters to KNVN – North Valley News. The first place results speak for themselves. KNVN found success exploiting a niche.

Find and create your niches. Some are subject oriented. Some are geography based.

All require a change in thinking. Giving up the concept of being all things to all people. That thinking embraces the mass appeal concept that worked when people only had three or four sources for news.

Other news and information sources cater to your viewer’s specific interests. They’ve grown accustomed to this attention. Your news must take a similar approach.

Offer specific targeted news to key segments of your audience. You’ll grow your numbers and build the loyalty so critical to your future success.

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Five News Conventions That Got Me Thinking

by Terry Segal on June 24, 2009

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News Conventions
photo by josef.stuefer

Local television news is ruled by certain conventions just like any other business. Certain practices continue because “it’s always been done that way.”

It got me to thinking…

1. Why aren’t single topic newscasts used more often?

This type of newscast usually occurs when a major disaster happens. Otherwise, forget it.

Yet, the news landscape today contains a number of topics that fall under the “emergency” classfication. They offer the urgency and relevancy that viewers demand.

Take the economy. Virtually every city and its business community is facing a myriad of challenges. Examine them. Every day presents fresh opportunities.

Take health care. Viewers wrestle with rising costs, often foregoing needed care. Doctors struggle to provide quality care for patients. Hospitals battle rising costs and squeezed budgets. Every day adds more options to explore.

Take education. Program cuts. Teacher shortages. Student boredom. Testing controversies. Tuitions rising. From elementary school to college, every day brings more issues to the front.

What about your market? What other issues come to mind?

A single topic newscast can be timely. Hard hitting. Relevant.

All that’s required is planning, and the guts to do things differently.

2. Why don’t reporters get to brief and interact with other reporters?

It appears that only anchors get to interact with other newsteam members. That’s okay because anchors are paid to take the lead.

What would happen if the scope of a story encouraged a wider line of questioning or input from newsteam members (see item 1 above)? Why couldn’t an anchor talk with two reporters and have a three way conversation? What if one of the reporters took the lead? Added his or her insight to what the other reporter had said?

You want your station to be the market’s first option for news. Why restrict the way news is presented? Wouldn’t the arrangement be a great way to showcase the depth of your news operation?

3. Why do most stations still feature a daily sports segment?

Even in markets with professional teams sports fans already know the scores and highlights of the home team by the time your news rolls around. Thank the internet and your myriad cable competitors for that. They’ve even provided more extensive footage and insider information than your sportscaster can due to their different format.

Can you fill your sports segment every night with high profile local (meaning non-professional) coverage?

If not, collapse the segment and give the time back to news. No harm will come to your newscast.

A traditional sports segment locks you into the past. You can’t afford that today, certainly not in the future.

4. Why do most anchors continue to sit behind news desks?

Talk about putting a barrier between your newsteam and the audience. Yes, the new HD designs look beautiful. But, the practice still puts distance between the anchors and the audience.

We’ve experimented with anchors standing, sitting in newsrooms (behind a desk), and roaming the newsroom floor.

Why not a simple table that opens the space? How about attractive high back chairs? Either works since the anchors are usually framed from the chest up.

Too informal? Give the audience more credit. Offer them the information they want and the formality becomes irrelevant.

5. Why don’t  stations use local inserts on cable news to showcase more special reports and packages?

Local inserts usually feature brief headlines and/or a quick weather recap. They’re usually taped and eventually lose their timeliness.

Why not use the time to further showcase and promote the station’s reporting largesse? Air a special feature or report that is timeless. Give that piece extra exposure. Alert viewers to the best work that your station has done.

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The Weekend Weather Advantage

by Terry Segal on June 23, 2009

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Weekend Weather
photo by notsogoodphotography

Weekends are what most people look forward to all week. No work. Time to play. Is your weathercaster making the most of your viewers’  interest in Saturday and Sunday?

Take advantage of the opportunity that weekends provide to connect with viewers and make money to boot. You can also heighten your weathercaster’s appeal.

Sound good?

Include a weekend weather segment in every weathercast. Make it a signature part of the presentation. Own the weekends to set yourself apart from competitors.

It’s a surefire way to show you understand what’s important to viewers. You can add highlights of upcoming events. You can discuss the potential impact on outdoor activities and sporting events. The weekend emphasis adds another dimension to your weather segment.

Don’t worry if the weekend forecast changes from Monday to Thursday. Your update showcases you’re on top of things. Viewers know that the weather is subject to change. They’ll appreciate the new information.

Most stations already provide a seven day forecast. The weekend receives no special attention unless it’s Thursday or Friday. This lack of emphasis makes Saturday and Sunday seem like any old days of the week.

What a wasted opportunity.

Take Advantage of Weekend Opportunities

Yes, even on Monday people are looking forward to the upcoming weekend. Plans are being made. Anticipation for another good time are starting to emerge. A targeted weekend forecast feeds into these expectations.

Talk about connecting with your audience.

Don’t overlook the revenue potential, either. Sales gets a highly visible and promotable feature to sell. The nature of the segment appeals to a wide range of potential advertisers.

Here’s how the segment adds to your weathercaster’s appeal. It makes the weathercaster who relies on the “expert” dimension more “human.” People take notice of his or her interest in their daily lives. And, it further cements the weathercaster who reigns supreme in the “personality” dimension. The audience thinks, “Just like (insert name), he’s always looking out for us.”

Your audience loves weekends. Your weathercaster should, too.

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