Saturday, May 04, 2013

Carthage, Neosho, Pittsburg papers to begin carrying AccuWeather forecasts

I have some commentary about this one at the bottom.

(From AccuWeather)


Beginning this summer, subscribers to all 78 GateHouse Media daily newspapers across the U.S. will find AccuWeather forecasts in their daily read. Thanks to a joint undertaking with AccuWeather, Inc., GateHouse Media newspapers across the country, along with the vast majority of their digital publications, will provide precise AccuWeather forecasts to over 655,000 subscribers.
In commenting on the agreement, David Arkin, vice president of content and audience for GateHouse Media, said, "Weather reporting has long been a staple of our print product. In fact, we had already been providing AccuWeather forecasts to 24 of our newspapers for some time. Now, with this extended agreement, every one of our newspaper subscribers will truly benefit from one of the most credible weather providers in the world."
"This is far more than simple dissemination of weather," continued Arkin. "AccuWeather provides us with truly targeted forecasts and delivers them in customized, ready-to-publish formats. With the accuracy of AccuWeather's content and their ability to provide formatted content to our printing hubs, we can now offer all of our readers, in both large and small markets, consistent, world-class weather reports in an efficient, cost-effective manner."
According to Scott Homan, executive director of news media services for AccuWeather, "The agreement with GateHouse is a very forward-thinking solution - one that will produce real rewards for them in both terms of reader satisfaction and efficient production. We constantly strive to both provide the best weather service in the world, and also to support our partners with real, cost-effective solutions for their changing markets and production schemes."
The agreement between AccuWeather and GateHouse Media becomes effective immediately with virtually all of GateHouse Media subscribers benefitting from AccuWeather forecasts by mid-summer.
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In recent months, GateHouse Media, which owns the Carthage Press, Neosho Daily News, and Pittsburg Morning Sun, has added AccuWeather and TV Guide, neither of which adds anything to the main function of what community newspapers are supposed to do- report on what is going on in the community.
People are not going to GateHouse Media newspapers to find out the weather forecast. They are getting the forecast from television, their computers, and any number of mobile devices. Is it any wonder GateHouse Media continues to bleed millions?

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