New Orleans Newspaper Publisher Has Opportunity to Innovate Digital Journalism

Reading that the Times-Picayune is reportedly scaling back their publishing schedule to three days a week makes me nostalgically sad. After all, my journalism career started out in print, and ironically at one of their sister publications.

The dedication of the staff during Hurricane Katrina makes this news harder to swallow than your typical newspaper demise. Those writers and photographers were faced with a unique situation -- covering their own tragedy.

As their families were told to evacuate, they stayed, kissed their children, husbands, wives, girlfriends and boyfriends goodbye, not knowing if, and when, they would see them again. They showed a level of professionalism and commitment to their craft that is beyond admirable. 

It's this dedication that can change the traditional print journalism landscape. While I understand the business aspect of the industry, I can't help but wonder what would happen if they didn't lay off staff and slash salaries, which is what will reportedly happen as they move to a 24-hour website.

Instead, what if Advance Publications, committed the resources to this project? What if they let these reporters, photographers and editors continue to produce the quality journalism that won them a Pulitzer, but just in digital form?

With that type of dedicated staff, they could really set a new standard in digital journalism.

In Business, Maybe Women Should Take a Page From a Man's Book

You hear it all the time:

"She looks fat in that dress."
"Oh my God, did you see how terrible her hair looks?"
"I've worked too hard to let some blonde bimbo come in and show me up at a board meeting."

Women don't always play well with other women. They can be mean, catty and downright childish -- and I'm not talking about the ones on "The Real Housewives" franchise. I'm talking about those in business.

Despite what we would like to believe, the corporate environment is still a man's world.

That was pretty evident recently at the World Economic Forum when despite powerful woman like, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, and Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, being there, many times all you heard about was the 'Davos Man' and saw photos, heard interviews from mostly men.

 In a press release, Sandberg said in part, it's because of an ambition gap.

 "We say we want to educate girls," she said, "but we don’t really believe it. We don’t raise our daughters to be as ambitious as boys."

So, should we be blaming these men for not giving us a chance? For squashing our careers or making it more difficult to  succeed?

Maybe.

But, what we really should be doing is looking at ourselves, and how we treat each other. We fight so hard to get to the top, that many times once we're there, we're extra hard on other women or belittle their career growth because we think they're a threat to our own success.

We create a "Mean Girls" environment in the corporate world.

Do you see men doing this? Not usually.

Instead, they take great pride in finding the best talent and cultivating them into the next top lawyer, producer, CEO or business owner.  Many of them take pride in knowing that one day,  they will be their replacement and have taught them everything they know to make sure that business, doctor's office or repair shop is going to run just as well as when they were there.

In this one case, on International Women's Day, maybe women should steal a page from a man's book.  

My Tail Hurts From Wagging So Much & Pet Lifestyle Writer Michelle Maskaly Head to Global Pet Expo

I'm on my way to Orlando, Fla. tonight to attend the Global Pet Expo -- one of the pet industry's largest trade shows. Last year we learned so much about the industry, that covering it again was a no-brainer.

We, along with Felissa Elfenbein, Tom Collins and Chloe DiVita are the official Blogger Correspondents for the expo.

We'll be blogging, tweeting, updating Facebook and recording Touts. So, make sure you're following us so you don't miss a minute of the action, and be among the first to learn about new products for your pets.

Here's all the ways you can follow us:
- My Tail Hurts From Wagging So Much website.
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Tout
- Storyful 

I Love Tout

After my terrible experience with a Droid last summer, I didn't think there would ever be anything that could make me end my love affair with my BlackBerry. Then I was introduced to Tout.

What's Tout? A new social video network where you can capture short, 15 second moments of life. Think Twitter meets YouTube, but easy.

Their mobile app rocks. You can record the video and upload it within seconds to the web. The catch? It's only available for the iPhone or Droid.

So, I went to Verizon and upgraded to the iPhone ... yes, all because of this app.

This weekend, I used Tout to capture my friend's ice diving experience in the Adirondacks. I can't begin to tell you how fun it was. I wish they had Tout when I was a street journalist.

Not only was I able to give real time updates on Twitter, but I also now have the videos which I can use on my website, and for when people ask me about what it's like to ice dive in the Adirondacks -- and all without having to sit in an editing room or having to wait till I got home to download video and then upload to YouTube.

This is a field producer's dream!

It's also an amazing and intuitive platform for brands and news organizations.

I'm having a hard time posting them here, but you can watch all of the Touts we did that day on my website post.

Pet Lifestyle Writer & Blogger Michelle Maskaly Featured on PetPr.com

December was so busy that I'm finally getting the chance to share all this great news!

Last month I was featured on PetPr.com as their featured blogger of the week! The article explained how I had always wanted to be a veterinarian, got hooked on journalism and eventually combined my passion for writing and pets.

You can read the full article on their website.