Weather in newspapers

Dis weather at your peril, it's like fucking around with comics. Huge part of any paper.

 

And most people realize that, except for the people who do the design. Again, no shock.

 

Two things you don't get rid of, no matter how much people supposedly go to the web for the information:
1. weather
2. baseball/football box scoes

 

Dyepack has a good point about the need to leave information in the paper.

But I certainly see the reason for the thread. I rarely look at the weather page, preferring to check the Web from time to time.

In reality, I don't alter my schedule or wardrobe much based upon the weather, so it's a non-issue for me.

And the weather is about the same every day here in Florida. When I was putting together the A section last fall, I marveled at how the temps listed on the A1 template were about the same as the daily temperatures. It's almost invariably 91 to 94 for a high this time of year, with the lows always somewhere around 75. And it's usually sunny during the day with an afternoon or early evening thunderstorm.

I think people will shift toward other sources of weather information in a few years, but it's something that should always be in the newspaper. More people are going to want that information over some trivial thing, such as the celebrity birthdays list that always seems to run.

 

My old paper shrunk weather down from a pretty good (for Podunk) 1/3 page color layout down to damn near nothing, all in the name of saving newshole. We didn't get any complaints that I know about. Now when they started screwing around with the TV book ... oy vey.

 

Isn't the weather in a newspaper usually wrong and outdated anyway? I never look at it outside of what is teased on the top of A1.

But maybe it is something readers still look for and have a use for.

 

Don't people go outside the get their papers in the morning? There's your weather.

For my 7-day forecast, I use the Weather Channel.

 

Forget that the weather in newspapers is completely inaccurate -- it's the reason circulation numbers are still where they are.

That and weather stories.

 

Actually, several of these decisions sounded like they came from the marketing department.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, get degrees in marketing and make everybody else's lives hell.

 

I'm a weather guy, several websites, etc. Kind of a running joke around here, when there's a weather deal going on, they ask me about it. So I certainly don't really need the possibly out of date newspaper version every morning.

That said, I look at it EVERY morning.

So I'm with Cosmo. People can get it elsewhere, but you leave it right where it is and don't mess with it too much except to improve it -- and even that at your own peril.

 

We aim to please, but our aim is poor.

 

Same here. By the time the press rolls, the forecast info we downloaded at 7 p.m. is already stale.