Weather Channel Execs Take a Swipe at On-Air Talent

By Chris Ariens 

Earlier this month, in promoting Local Now, which provides hyper-local weather, traffic, news, and sports content, the president of the Weather Channel Dave Clark and the network’s COO Freddy Flaxman seemed to criticize on-air TV news and weather personalities.

In tweets, embedded below, Clark and Flaxman tout Local Now which includes “0 cheesy anchors,” “0% hairspray, bad suits and dumb jokes.” Presumably, Clark and Flaxman were talking about the hundreds of local news and weather anchors across the nation, not those on the Weather Channel payroll.

An insider tells us several Weather Channel meteorologists “were less than pleased” by the comments.

The Weather Channel has been in transition since IBM closed a deal to acquire its parent, the Weather Company, in January, leaving the Weather Channel as an independent network. Assets now include the main TV network, another network of weather-related products called WeatherScan, and the recently-launched Local Now. But the TV channel is still the money-maker. The goal may be about promoting products that are crucial to the long-term success of the network, but taking public swipes like this still seems short-sighted.

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