By: Staff Reports AccuWeather Pitches New Product To Newspapers
Newspapers considering the pay-for content model had best make
sure they have features compelling enough to open consumers'
wallets.
As more papers consider switching to paid online subscriptions,
vendors are beginning to offer souped-up features that might make
such services more attractive.
AccuWeather of State College, Pa., will introduce its streaming
video forecasts to the newspaper industry on Saturday at NEXPO,
the Newspaper Association of America's technical conference being
held in New Orleans this year. The service offers 45- to 60-
second streaming video clips of meteorologists giving current
forecasts.
AccuWeather Founder and President Dr. Joel N. Myers said the
service allows newspapers to compete with local broadcast outlets
and The Weather Channel. "We think the application for newspapers
is compelling because newspapers are moving to premium paid
subscription fees, following in the steps of The Wall Street
Journal," Myers said.
He noted that several studies show that weather is the most
popular item on news Web sites.
AccuWeather already provides weather information to 1,200 Web
sites, including those of The New York Times and The
Washington Post. Myers hopes newspapers will upgrade to the
streaming service, which will cost from $100 to $200 per month
for a single-city forecast, depending on the newspaper's market
size. Audio forecasts are available for $50 to $75 a month.
Yahoo! is the first customer to use the service. Myers said that
site is getting about 25,000 downloads of the video forecasts
daily.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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