Weather warnings & Hurricanes: automated texts = instant + full local coverage
We know from local publishing partners how important it is to publish content that fulfills a need for local readers. With automated texts about extreme weather, local newsrooms can service readers with fast and reliable updates, and at the same time allow reporters to focus on covering live developments on the ground.
United Robots provides two automated weather content products: Weather warnings and Hurricane alerts. Weather warnings are based on data from the National Weather Service and our Hurricane product is built on data from the National Hurricane Center (more on products further down).
Triple win for publishers: Speed, 24/7 coverage and PVs + engagement
We know from publishers who use our extreme weather products that these solve a number of problems in the local newsrooms. NJ.com (part of Advance Local) publish automated Weather warnings, and these are the benefits they see:
Speed. The weather data is checked every 5 minutes, and texts generated literally instantaneously. Says Matt Dowling, Senior Director of News Strategy at NJ Advance Media: “The content often comes in faster than the updates from NWS on Twitter. Plus the content is already done – which means the reporter dedicated to weather can immediately link to the article.”
24/7 coverage. The automated weather warnings constitute around the clock coverage of critical community events – whether or not there are reporters in the newsroom. Matt Dowling: “We're unstaffed six hours on weekdays and about seven hours on weekends, and on weekends we don't always have a weather expert working. So this really helps complement the times of days where we don't have the people with the expertise to handle the larger stories on weather reporting in particular.”
Pageviews. During two weeks in February (2024) Advance Local published 580 weather alerts across eight of their local titles (1100 alerts if you include updates on existing events). The content generated about half a million pageviews in the two weeks.
Matt Dowling is clear that the automated content is having a positive impact in the newsroom. “This is stuff that adds value, it helps support the website, it helps support the mission and it frees up the time for our reporters to do the more meaningful work. And that has made a big difference for us.”
Products
Weather warnings
The NWS data covers over 100 distinct weather events and is checked every five minutes, so the automated alerts are always up-to-date. The automated weather warning content packages include state maps, with the affected county/counties highlighted in colour.