If you’re working for the Weather Channel, look out for the falling ax. Kristi Swartz at the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
Weather Channel lays off staff
The Weather Channel, which NBC Universal bought in September, has laid off some of its staff. It is unclear how many people were cut or whether they are receiving a severance package.
NBC Universal and Weather Channel officials would not comment beyond a statement.
“The economic realities of recent months have created challenges for everyone in our business. In addition, when NBC Universal purchased the Weather Channel earlier this year, we expected that there would be cost synergies as part of company reorganization. While it is always difficult to lose valued employees, we are doing our best to minimize the impact, and remain committed to providing the highest quality content that our viewers have come to expect from the Weather Channel.”
h/t to TVSpy
This is got to be just the first shoe to drop in the main stream media. Consider how many of the big, regular ad buyers are gone such as financial services companies, car companies and the like. I think the only thing that kept the media going was the massive ad buys for the election. Now that Nov 4 is come and gone, the harsh reality of the broader economy will start taking its toll on everyone in the media.
Nothing useful left on the weather channel anyway. The endless drivel about climate change is just tiring.
Plenty of Internet sites fill the bill, like this one — ^_^
they’re owned by NBC?!?! no wonder they always have these shows and spots on how to make your house “greener” or how bad the non existant hurricanes are
TWC & NBC — a match made in greenie heaven.
Between Weather Underground and the local 11pm local news/weather, I’d forgotten they even exist. And as for why I use WU instead of TWC on-line service — TWC on-line seemed too bloated when I made my choice.
How about Heidi? I note she’s by way of NCAR out of Columbia where her research interest was the North Atlantic Oscillation. I wonder if she’s wondering. Or wandering.
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Between the “Forecast Earth” climate change hype reruns and endless commercials, there is little room left for actual weather anyway. Why don’t we all petition Accu Weather to create its own Accu Weather Channel in keeping with the fairness doctrine that’s soon to be reality. At least they stick to the weather and seem rather skeptical about AGW.
TWC, LOL….they rename it to the TDC
If you listen to them, the entire USA would have been destroyed by now.
@leon Besides what you mentioned, you can add your own personal weather reporting station at WU to share with all your friends and neighbors. You can’t do that at TWC.
When the Weather Channel lost John Coleman, it lost its way.
Sorry OT:
is the CO2 readjusted retrospectively?
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
Won’t the fairness doctrine kill AGW?
…since the contrarian view on CO2 will have to be presented with equal veracity.
Hate to wish anyone ill, but maybe some of those Weather Channel folks will feel better if someone points out their jobs represent only a couple percent of TWC’s budget.
After all, we’re told addressing AGW will “only” cost a couple percent of GDP.
I hope they cancel those lame hurricane reporters who bring absolutly nothing to the table except misconceptions.
I stopped watching years ago. Nothing but “climate change this, climate change that…” Just insulting. I get my weather from Weather Underground and Intellicast now.
Hate to sound like a broken record, but the previous commenters are absolutely correct. Tell me if I need to take an umbrella when I leave for work, spare me the guilt trip based on my carbon sins. I certainly don’t wish for others to lose their jobs, but this was utterly predicatable. The vast majority of viewers are looking for info to make their lives a little easier, not a preachy sermon.
How those running a business could so misjudge their customer’s desires is beyond my comprehension.
Al Gore has this post on his blog (h/t Drudge Report):
“A new study suggests the Mayan civilization might have collapsed due to environmental disasters:
“These models suggest that as ecosystems were destroyed by mismanagement or were transformed by global climatic shifts, the depletion of agricultural and wild foods eventually contributed to the failure of the Maya sociopolitical system,’ writes environmental archaeologist Kitty Emery of the Florida Museum of Natural History in the current Human Ecology journal.”
As we move towards solving the climate crisis, we need to remember the consequences to civilizations that refused to take environmental concerns seriously.
If you haven’t read already read it, take a look at Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse.”
Understanding the past to better predict the future, Mr. Gore? That hardly seems your strong suit, as inconvenient of a truth as that may be.
America should take it’s cue from Switzerland, and grant plants “rights”. That way, we could sue the EPA on their behalf for denying them the food they need to survive – CO2.
The Mayan civilization may have collapsed due to diet
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/E/ends2/quest4.html
as it has been shown that people who eat people often get disease from the consumption. Did the model suggest that?
I hope that is not our fate, but most certainly our economy suffers from a lack of confidence in future policy.
Global warming .. it’s coming to a workplace near you.
Slightly OT (but it does have a lot of weather in it).
Watching this would be 10 minutes well spent.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KLxicwiBQ7Q
Nov. 19, 2008: An international team of researchers has discovered a puzzling surplus of high-energy electrons bombarding Earth from space. The source of these cosmic rays is unknown, but it must be close to the solar system and it could be made of dark matter. Their results are being reported in the Nov. 20th issue of the journal Nature.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/19nov_cosmicrays.htm
I feel sorry for the folks who will lose their jobs. If the usual pattern holds, they will keep the Heidis and others of that ilk. They will shut off the lights. Regular hard working stiffs will get the axe.
Actually, there is a now a Local AccuWeather Channel that competes with The Weather Channel. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_AccuWeather_Channel
It is quite popular and growing rapidly.
Pete (15:28:40) :
Won’t the fairness doctrine kill AGW?
…since the contrarian view on CO2 will have to be presented with equal veracity.
Unfortunately, the fairness doctrine will only apply to those who defy AGW. There is nothing fair about it. Last time I checked the Constitution, free speech was still in there. But any speech in opposition to AGW, among other things, will be nixed by the “selective” fair doctrine act. James Hannsen and Al Gore have already settled any discussion about AGW.
It’s obvious that all weather channels will have to lose staff because they will have so little to do. There are only so many ways you can say “It will be warmer, Al says so.”
Bit chilly in London tonight, but then it is late November. Looking forward to a proper winter.
They’ll all get transferred to MSNBC where they’ll feel right at home.
Actually, NBC already runs “Weatherplus” as a digital sub-channel on OTA (Over The Air) television. I’m in Toronto, and can get almost all the Buffalo digitals free with an indoor antenna (YES, including glorious HD)… of course it does help that I’m in a 6th-storey condo with a clear view towards Buffalo. I get so many stations free I don’t bother with cable. One of the stations I get is NBC’s WGRZ, which is currently carrying Weatherplus.
On a Canadian TV-related web-forum, it was posted a while ago that NBC will be killing the free OTA Weatherplus channel as of December to concentrate on Weather Channel, which is a pay-TV channel. So it looks like they’re combining the Weatherplus and Weather Channel staff, and will obviously have too many bodies. This would be the case even without the current economic powerdive.
Years ago when biz travel was big for me, I always turned to TWC. Any time, any city, I got what I needed to pack and schedule. Loved it. Kept watching just to see what all my friends & family were having for weather.
Lately, turn on TWC for weather report: get history of some old hurricane. Try later, AGW nag. Try later, When Weather Changed History. Try Later, commercials. Didn’t try later…
Now I only look to The Weather Channel for weather during business hours and only if an internet site isn’t available. Google is my friend 😉 (Sell NBC stock, buy Google stock…) I also have trouble thinking how accurate weather can come from a station that believes it’s getting warmer (AGW) when it’s clearly colder (2008). Credibility damaged, change channel…
I’d love an Acu Weather station. They have their head on straight and understand that accurate weather is all that matters, not PCness. AGW thesis didn’t match reality, they chucked it.
Bobby Lane said:
Understanding the past to better predict the future, Mr. Gore? That hardly seems your strong suit, as inconvenient of a truth as that may be.
end quote.
Spot on! Especially given that the Maya collapse, while spread over a few hundred years, is largely coincident with the Migration Era Pessimum that is itself largely coincident with Bond Event 1.
I find it fascinating that Al Gore would site the Maya when they are most likely evidence for a 1500 year solar cycle causing civilization collapse… them and the western Roman Empire => dark ages at the same time.
(The Migration Era Pessimum is the name of the cold time that came just after the Roman Warm Period or Roman Optimum. We now live in the Modern Optimum. I vote for calling the coming cold era the Al Gore Pessimum …)
Shocker that all these liberal hack channels, newspapers , etc. are laying off people. Maybe all their global warming BS programs just weren’t a rating booster.
FYI
General Electric owns 80% of NBC Universal. GE is invested heavily in windmills and solar energy. MSNBC is heavily invested in President-elect Obama (e.g., Chris Matthews. ‘I felt this thrill going up my leg’). Is this a conflict of interest.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1969764/posts
GE’s stock was at record lows before the stock market collapse last October. GE is to big to fail? I smell another bailout once the democrats take control of the White House and Congress.
Pete (15:28:40) :
“Won’t the fairness doctrine kill AGW?
…since the contrarian view on CO2 will have to be presented with equal veracity.”
The “Fairness” Doctrine is unilateral.
I vote for calling the coming cold era the Al Gore Pessimum
I have already taken to calling it the Gore Minimum, although the two syllable Maunder & Dalton precedents tend to favor Hansen Minimum. Should the Thames freeze again, we should force them both to sit on it with bare bottoms.
Now THAT’S a mental picture I did NOT need! You owe me a keyboard!!
TWC could use some deadwood culling, like Heidi Cullen, who should be decertified by AMS for pushing AGW propaganda. Well, I can dream, can’t I.
tarpon (11:26:27) :
“Nothing useful left on the weather channel anyway. ..”
‘back in the day’ the weather channel was essential viewing for me. It was on virtually all the time, and I would actually TAPE IT if there was some weather ‘event’ nearby. Now, I NEVER watch it. If I need the local weather, I’ll get it off the web. WILL NOT turn on the weather channel.
And speaking of “local weather”…
You may have noticed they have “weather reports” for all sorts of little places now…
…you may have wondered whose weather station is installed in Cuspidor, East Turnip, Horseface Creek, etc.
Answer: THERE ISN’T A WEATHER STATION
Those “observations” are extracted from a computer analysis of what the temperature “should” be at those locations. Except for the actual airport observations, “Your Local Weather” on the weather channel is mostly phoney baloney.
You may also have noticed that the seven day forecasts are a joke. Those are also 100% computer-generated.
Real human being weather forecasters at the National Weather Service use computer-generated predictions as a STARTING POINT, which is then refined using human intelligence and experience to create a real weather forecast.
At the weather channel, raw computer projections are presented to the public unrefined, as a seven-day forecast.
kim (12:31:59) :
” How about Heidi? I note she’s by way of NCAR out of Columbia where her research interest was the North Atlantic Oscillation. I wonder if she’s wondering. Or wandering. ”
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Don’t worry about heidi. she’ll have a good new job in January.
“I hope they cancel those lame hurricane reporters who bring absolutly nothing to the table except misconceptions.”
It’s been years since I paid any attention to TWC, but I still respect Jim Cantore’s reporting from, e.g. Kill Devil Hills.
It was pretty dramatic in 1992 when Andrew passed directly over the HQ of the Hurricane Center with TWC reporters hunkering down on the lee side.
‘‘I felt this thrill going up my leg’
Sounds like a twelve-year-old describing a new physiological experience.
How much do you want to bet that the folks laid off from The Weather Channel are those who refused to agree with this whole “green” crap that the leftie whackos are spewing from their non-existent brains?
My guess is that once “N”othing “B”ut “C”rap bought The Weather Channel, those who worked there were given a “quiz”. One (or more likely, many) of the questions probably had to do with global warming and their feelings and beliefs.
People. Wake up. Did you watch “Expelled” by Ben Stein? This screwed up world we live in is being taken over by fruitcake liberal whackjobs. You cant disagree with them or you are a “non-believer” but GOD HELP YOU if you want to speak to them about your religious beliefs……. they dont want to hear it and will SUE YOU to get you to stop.
I think its about time people start forcing the shutdown of this green shit. I, for one, and probably for THOUSANDS upon thousands are SICK OF IT. And I dont want to hear anymore bull crap green this or green that anymore.
My toenail fell of. Lets blame it on global warming!!!!!!!! Asswipes.
Walter Dnes (20:42:06) :
“Actually, NBC already runs “Weatherplus” as a digital sub-channel on OTA (Over The Air) television…”
Now that NBC has the weather channel, Weather Plus (which was never profitable) is being shut down.
“…Shortly after the acquisition of The Weather Channel on October 8, 2008, NBC announced that Weather Plus would be shut down by the end of 2008…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_Weather_Plus
They should just pull the plug and take it off the air. I stopped watching about 8 years ago, and I couldn’t care less about its fate.
From rhodeymark (06:41:58) :
I have already taken to calling it the Gore Minimum, although the two syllable Maunder & Dalton precedents tend to favor Hansen Minimum. Should the Thames freeze again, we should force them both to sit on it with bare bottoms.
end quote
Gurk! Resolve, never read blog again while drinking coffee. You owe me shirt!
Seriously (sort of) the ‘minimum’ and ‘pessimum’ are two different things. One is sunspots (minimum) the other is temperature/climate (cold). They each get a different name. While I prefer that the present minimum be called the Landscheidt Minimum in honor of the guy who predicted it; there is a certain charm to the set of “Hansen Minimum / AlGore Pessimum”…
Unfortunately, the actual names will be assigned by politically connected committees of scientists with little sense of irony…
Eddy Minimum; Jack Eddy liked words.
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GE has been in the toilet ever since Jack Welch left. Maybe even before.
I was sort of hoping that our gal Heidi would lose her certification or whatever papers she holds. Not a chance though, only the hard working and honest ones will get hit.
Hmmm, not sure if this is true.
In a way, kind of sorry if it is. Where else will I go for my nuts&berries climate howlers?
BTW, caught a puff piece on CNBC today. They were interviewing the head of the the cable unit of NBC and bragging about how great they were doing. Mostly with some network named “Oxygen”, but for some reason, they didn’t mention the recent TWC acquisition.
Ain’t it grand when the media get to “report” on themselves?
Rats, wrong link.
Here’s the right one.
(Whew, better watch what I paste in! 🙂