Broadcast meteorologists and newscast producers must work together to ensure the weather coverage is comprehensive and consistently delivers The Essential Message. To do that, everyone must be on a first-name basis.

I can always tell when the weather team isn’t communicating with the rest of the newsroom. Watching the newscast, the anchor will read a toss to weather, many times written by the producer, and the first graphic in the weathercast will be completely different. If you look closely, the meteorologist sometimes has that deer in the headlights look on their face because they aren’t prepared to talk about whatever the news anchor just said.

In many television stations, you’ll find the weather center in the dark corner of the studio, just a few steps from the news desk and video wall. This arrangement works well during the newscast, allowing the meteorologists to quickly update their graphics during breaking weather situations. Unfortunately, this also means the weather team is usually far from the newsroom. 

Meet the Producers

Unless the broadcast meteorologists walk into the newsroom, they could go for days (weeks?!) without personally connecting with the rest of the news team. This can be a problem since newscast producers usually write the opening headlines at the top of the newscast, the teases at the end of each news block, and sometimes the tosses from the news anchor to the meteorologist. If the producer doesn’t know what the meteorologist is covering, there will be inconsistencies in the weather story.

I don’t blame the producers! Broadcast meteorologists are responsible for the weather content in the newscast. So, it’s up to them to communicate with the producer and the rest of the newsroom. That means they might have to get up, walk into the newsroom, and meet the producers.

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READ MORE: THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A QUIET WEATHER DAY

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When I worked at ABC13 in Houston, there were separate producers for each newscast: 4 PM, 4:30 PM, 5:00 PM, 6:00 PM, 6:30 PM, and 10 PM. Every day at 3 PM, I’d walk out of the weather center and go into the newsroom to meet briefly with each of my producers. I’d share with them my essential message and what I’d be covering in my weather hits. I’d also use this opportunity to check and see if any weather-related stories had been added to the newscasts since the afternoon editorial meeting or if any interesting weather video was available on the newsfeeds from the ABC and CNN networks. 

Many days, the conversations were brief. And on quiet news days, we’d talk more about things going on in our lives than we would about the weather. 

These conversations were meaningful because they helped keep the weather coverage consistent across all newscasts. Furthermore, it’s good to be friends with your producers because they ultimately determine how much time you’ll get in the newscast.

The power of face-to-face conversations

Some newsrooms use email or computer software like Slack for internal communication. But newscast producers are working with more than just the weather team. They also connect with reporters, photographers, the assignment desk, other producers, and news management. It’s easy to lose an important message on a busy news day.

All the weather teams I coach email a daily weather update to the entire newsroom. I encourage my teams to keep the emails short and use 3 to 4 bullet points. Many newsrooms even use my “Essential Message” terminology to keep everyone focused on the critical information viewers need to know and want to know about the weather today. Even then, I recommend my coaching clients to get up and personally check in with their producers every day. 

My afternoon stroll through the newsroom wasn’t the only time I met with my producers. I always checked in with the late newscast producer when I returned from my evening dinner break. And I didn’t just chat with the producers. I’d also talk with the web team, especially if there was a potential for breaking weather. And I checked in with the news anchors or production crew if I planned on doing something unusual during my weather hits.

It’s tempting to skip these face-to-face meetings when there’s active weather. But the weather coverage within a newscast will never be as good as when everyone works together to deliver the same essential message. On days when there’s active weather, taking a few minutes to personally meet might seem impossible. But those are the times when a quick face-to-face meeting is even more critical to ensure comprehensive weather coverage.

 

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