The business of weather has changed dramatically since former WCCO Minneapolis chief meteorologist Paul Douglas exited the station world in 2008. An entrepreneur with a handful of multi-million-dollar weather-tech startups to his credit, Douglas launched the syndicated weather outfit WeatherNation a few months after he was laid off, with the aim of providing weather content to stations and other media outlets across the country.

He envisioned a large quantity of his business coming from supplying weather talent remotely from his Twin Cities headquarters for stations that perhaps had downsized. But as media consumption habits have changed, with users increasingly accessing weather information when and how they want it on their iPhones and Droids, WeatherNation is more in tune with products for people on the go.