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New media play a growing role in bringing people access to TWC "anytime, anywhere"
A young woman cruises the Internet, working on a research project, when suddenly, a little thunder clap sounds from her PC. She clicks on a desktop icon and a box opens up: Sure enough, the weather forecast has changed. A storm will roll in at about 3 p.m., right when her son's soccer game is scheduled to begin. She breathes a sign of relief: With the game canceled, a new, two-hour window just opened up in her afternoon, giving her time to finish her research a little early and move on to another assignment.
The woman has been using Desktop Weather by The Weather Channel, a feature offered on Weather.com. "We want to position ourselves to be a solution and to be available to people however they want to use us," says Weather.com president and CEO Deborah Wilson.
Wilson has just echoed a thought heard often around The Weather Channel and its subsidiaries, where the goal is to become consumers' first choice in weather information no matter what media they are using at any given time. The strategy has put TWC and its online sibling on the front lines of developing new media.
A good deal of the action is occurring on Weather.com, but there are also developments in interactive TV, on-demand and wireless services.
At Weather.com, where unique visitors average 12 million a month, new applications let users plan vacations and figure out how strong a sunscreen they...