A Difficult Day In A Difficult Year

| January 23, 2009 @ 9:12 pm | 45 Replies

Most of you have heard by now that we had a significant number of employees laid off today at ABC 33/40 television.

These were very talented people that were simply victims of a bad economy, and a business that is going through a major transformation. Long time listeners of WeatherBrains, and those who have heard me speak at conferences over the past five years, know I have been warning of these days for a while. But, I had no idea the economy was going to tank at the same time the business model was under pressure. This year is truly a perfect storm for the traditional broadcasters; we have no banner event to attract advertisers (like the Olympics, or a political year), our analog signals are about to go away (adding lots of confusion to the mix), and our traditional TV audience is being disrupted by the Internet.

We are not alone; most broadcast groups have had major layoffs in recent weeks. This is an industry wide problem.

But, technology is not our enemy, it is our friend. Our traffic metrics for this blog and other digital products are at record highs. A new and exciting business model will come out of this. For those of us remaining in media meteorology, we have to work long days and nights with little sleep, producing weather products across a wide variety of platforms, and using social media to reach the masses.

The good news is that Brian Peters and Tim Coleman, while at this time are no longer ABC 33/40 employees, will still be writing for the blog, producing Weather Xtreme videos, and participating in our weekly show WeatherBrains. The blog and WeatherBrains are a product of The Weather Company, who partners with ABC 33/40 on a number of projects. Brian and Tim will be contributing to the blog as always… and you can hear them on WeatherBrains every week. None of that will change.

I know many other businesses and industries are going through similar pain. But, “tough times never last; tough people do”. Our prayers are with those who lost their jobs today; I sincerely pray that God opens a bigger and better door for them in coming days.

Category: Pre-November 2010 Posts

About the Author ()

James Spann is one of the most recognized and trusted television meteorologists in the industry. He holds the AMS CCM designation and television seals from the AMS and NWA. He is a past winner of the Broadcast Meteorologist of the Year from both professional organizations.

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