Weather Channel responds to sale criticism

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 4 (UPI) -- Officials with The Weather channel and newly acquired Michigan-based Web site Weather Underground said the site's sale will not affect its quality.

Alan Steremberg, president of the Ann Arbor-based Weather Underground, and David Kenny, the chairman and chief executive of the Weather Channel Companies, responded to online criticism of the sale by saying the Web site will not be altered to more closely resemble the cable network, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

"I think that once they see that we're only investing in the product, not changing it or dumbing it down or altering it in some way, then I think that will go away," Kenny said of the criticism.

"This will be a better change, a good change," Steremberg said of the sale.