Twitter is partnering with meteorologist and veteran climate journalist, Eric Holthaus, to launch “Tomorrow” – a local weather news service.
Twitter has always been the platform to find and follow breaking news, and the weather is no different. After all, some of the biggest conversations on the platform refer to severe weather events.
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To tap into this trend, Twitter is launching a new local weather news service across 16 cities in North America, with the participation of 18 local meteorologists who will create content and interact with members of the service.
The platform, called “Tomorrow,” will be built using all of the new products for creators on Twitter, including paid newsletters through Revue, ticketed Spaces, and others.
“You can imagine paying subscribers getting even closer to experts, using features like Spaces to ask questions before a hurricane or other severe events,” explains Twitter’s VP of product Mike Park.
Eric Holthaus, a meteorologist and veteran climate journalist, is currently the only full-time employee at Tomorrow, but he plans to bring on 20-30 writers and four part-time editorial staffers.
We’ll be doing local newsletters, drop-in audio chats during times of scary weather, original journalism focused on climate justice, and a paid service that will let ppl ask unlimited questions.
It's a revolutionary weather service for a revolutionary moment in history.
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) June 1, 2021
Eventually, the team will create a set of newsletters and exclusive long-form content through Revue – a newsletter platform Twitter recently acquired – in addition to short-form content for members, like ticketed Spaces and audience Q&A services on Twitter.
The latter is important to mention as they are unique to this model, according to Axios. Members can ask as many questions as they want during breaking news weather events. The collective of meteorologists and climate experts will answer these in real-time.
Holthaus says they will get questions via email for the time being, but users might submit them in a password-protected part of the Revue website in the future. This feature is still in development.
The goal is to expand to up to 50 major media markets in North America by the end of 2021 and then expand internationally within 2022, especially in places like India and Brazil with a high user count and limited weather services.
Tomorrow will work on a $10 monthly subscription model.