Lindsey Mastis, Bob Shieffer, Al Neuharth at the Newseum

To me, Al Neuharth is the Elton John of journalism. He breaks all the rules, jazzes it up, and revolutionizes the industry. He is a rock star. But if you were to ask him, he’d just say he’s an SOB.

I read his book “Confessions of an S.O.B” back in high school. I dreamed of one day working for Gannett. That’s when I was interested in becoming a newspaperwoman. I thought the ultimate job would be working for USA Today (Neuharth founded USA Today, The Freedom Forum and the Newseum). I’ve certainly realized my dreams at a young age, working instead for Gannett’s broadcast flagship station WUSA-TV as a reporter.

Today I met the legend. It was during a program at the Newseum called “The Future of News” and today’s topic is “Who Decides What’s News” with guests Bob Schieffer (CBS Face the Nation) and Krishna Bharat (Google News creator).

Sitting front and center (next to my friend and photo obsessive genius Bruce Guthrie) is Al Neuharth. I almost fainted! Neuharth is in town for the Free Spirit Awards which honors, educates, and provides scholarships to high school journalism students. Neuharth has also written a book titled “Free Spirit” which is a fast, easy and inspiring read.

Lindsey Mastis talks with Krishna Bharat, creator of Google News

Neuharth sat with the students as Schieffer and Bharat talked about news. I found myself nodding my head in agreement with the main themes: That people need to get their news from more than one source. That there has to be a balance between what people want to know and what they ought to know. That fact checking is more important to credible news sources than getting the story first but wrong. That social networking sites like Twitter can be used as news tips. That aggregators are helpful tools to determine what most editors believe is news.

Lindsey Mastis meets Bob Schieffer, host, CBS Face the Nation

An additional point Schieffer brought up is about money. He believes journalists and their news organizations that break news stories should get paid for the work. For example, a news organization could pay one of their investigative journalists to spend weeks exposing government waste spending and interviewing whistle blowers. The story runs and in a matter of minutes other news agencies are reporting the story and citing the source. The other news agencies did not have to invest time, money, and stress into the story. Yet the audience is getting the same information. Is there a solution?

Neuharth has been called an SOB and even worse. And it’s not just because of his managing style. It’s because he created USA Today– or the McPaper. He is the one who made newspapers sexy (placing “tits above the fold“). He had reporters write shorter articles and place information in easy to understand graphs. He was criticized, yet it was where the eyes were and he made it profitable. And now we live in a society that needs to fit its thoughts in 140 characters or less.

The problem today: free news for the consumer, with high costs and low profits for the news organization. Neuharth made profits at a time when everyone said it was impossible. Today, people say it’s impossible to make money on the web. Yet that is where the eyes are. The question is, how can news organizations provide trustworthy and ground breaking content for free online and still make a profit?

In my opinion, people will not pay for news. News is free on TV. News is free on Google. We can even get the news by reading one word on a Twitter trend list. But there is a way to capitalize on this new and continuously evolving technology. All the industry needs is another Neuharth to figure it out.

By the way–Neuharth is not my idol for being an SOB, nor for making a profit. It’s not even for starting USA Today.

It’s because he believes in the audience. He hired minorities and women to reflect the readership. He wanted bold pictures and simple graphs so people could get a better understanding of the story. He wanted people to get important news along with the watercooler stories. And he made sure people everywhere in the nation could access the same information. Not to mention, he worked hard.

Neuharth is turning 86 next week. When he first started in the industry he had to deal with crumudgeons, cynics, and naysayers. Those people still exist. They always will. But to those of us wanting to make a difference in this world, Neuharth is  ”a perfect embodiment of a concept.” And that concept is the evolution of the news media.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I got a sneak peek of the Discovery Channel’s new series LIFE. I’ve never said the words “incredible” and “amazing” so much in one night. It was at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed the soundtrack live. Oprah (who was not there) voiced the series. Altogether, it’s going to be 11 hours.

I’m a fan of Planet Earth (and have the series on Blu-Ray). Surprisingly, it’s a really good date-night movie. Out of the Planet Earth series, the penguins are my favorite. I’ve only seen one episode of LIFE, and I’m torn between the octopus and the komodo dragon.

The female octopus (which looked red) only lays eggs once in her life and then she dies. Within minutes I saw this entire process. Incredible.

Growing up in St. Louis meant going to the zoo a lot. One of my favorites to see was the komodo dragon. But in the small space, it just stood there looking board. I had never seen a dragon in action until I watched a preview of the series. I learned more about what it took to get the footage from some of the behind-the-scenes interviews with the photographers. They said the dragons will hunt together, so they had to keep an eye out and protect one another. They even had a close call. It reminds me of the part in Jurassic Park where the hunter was hunted by the Raptors. Amazing.

The series premieres Sunday, March 21, at 8 pm. But if you can’t wait, check out some of the videos on YouTube now:

Popularity: 2% [?]

The Twestival Celebration at MidTown Loft was a huge success. On September 10, tweeple in DC and in cities around the world got together to support local causes.

Proceeds from the DC Twestival went to Miriam’s Kitchen– an organization that feeds the homeless. Altogether, we raised enough money for 10,000 meals– that’s a fifth of the meals they serve a year.

The event was also chance to see people I normally only get to talk to on Twitter. Here are just a few of the tweeple I met up with (in alphabetical order. I’m not playin’ favorites here!):
@cheeky_geeky

@chrisabraham

@KKemple

@PeterLaMotte

@PutItAway

@nakeva

@sandraendo

@sliqviq

Popularity: 21% [?]

I did it! I completed my first official half-marathon in 2:17:05.86. That means I ran 10:28 minutes per mile. Perfect timing– my goal was 12-minute miles or better. I truly surprised myself.

Plus, all the money made at the Frederick Running Festival goes to the United Way of Frederick County and the Special Olympics of Maryland. Both are wonderful organizations. (In 2001, I was a United Way of St. Louis volunteer who helped decide which organizations received donations.)

The Frederick Half-Marathon began at 6:30 a.m. I worked late shift the night before, so I didn’t get to bed until after midnight. I woke up around 4:30 a.m. and ate oatmeal for breakfast. I got dressed and then headed out around 5:15. Patrick drove while I pinned on my bib number. I realized I forgot my watch, which meant I would be a bit blind about pacing during my run. I had a protein bar in the car, and hoped we would arrive in time. We barely made it. As we approached the starting line, the announcer said to run. I pretty much took off right then.

It seemed the whole town of Frederick was out to cheer us on. My favorite part of the race was at the very beginning. A man was holding a bright yellow sign that said, “Welcome Runners!” It made me feel so good. As I ran through neighborhoods, I waved and said, “Good Morning,” to the people who came out of their homes to cheer us on. Many were simply sitting on their porches, drinking coffee, and waving.

I had incredible amounts of energy. I was smiling, waving to everyone, and was even passing people up! I felt fast and strong. I hadn’t seen any mile markers, but I felt confident that I’d soon be seeing mile-marker number 6 at any time. I rounded a corner and saw I had only reached mile 3. I instantly felt defeated. I knew I was running too fast and there was no way I could keep up this pace.

Luckily, I had my music with me. I turned it up and kept running– at a little bit of a slower pace of course. As I ran, I looked down. I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t trip on anything. I noticed people’s feet running in front of me. Then, I did a double-take. One runner had no shoes. He was running barefoot! It was so neat! Patrick took a picture of a sign from one of his fans. This is apparently his 250th barefoot marathon.

Half way through the run, it began to rain. Not much– just a little drizzle. It was nice because it kept me cool. By the end of the race it was raining a bit more. Puddles had already formed, and several times I ran through them. My socks were wet, and worst of all, I was getting chaffing between my legs. I didn’t have trouble with this during training. But I only did small runs when it rained. My shorts kept wading up.

I spent time following different runners. The hardest part about this run was cramping. I ate breakfast and had a protein bar but couldn’t get to a bathroom before the race. I was beginning to feel sick, but every portable bathroom had a long line. I didn’t want to ruin my pacing by waiting in line. After mile 10, I saw two bathrooms without lines. It only took a moment for one to open up. I was happy I stopped because I was definitely getting sick from the… wait. I spent at least five minutes before getting back on the course. 

I never regained my stride. The rest of the race was a struggle. Again, my music helped me through it. I was dreaming of the finish line. I just wanted to stop. At this point, I wasn’t even thinking, “what was I thinking.” I just thought– “when I’m done, I can lay down.” 

Finally I saw mile marker 12. I only had 1.1 miles to go and it was all uphill. There was virtually no one there to cheer us on. It was incredibly hard. Finally I got up to the fairgrounds and saw mile 13. All I had to do was go on the track and cross the finish line. I don’t remember which song got me there. I turned off my music so I could hear and learned I finished around 2:20. I was happy.

A little girl handed me my medal and a man tried to wrap me in foil. But I was burning up. I just wanted to see Patrick. He wore a yellow hat so I could find him easily. I followed the flood of runners toward the recovery tent when I heard my name. It was Patrick! He gave me a huge hug and I started crying. I was happy and in pain. Lots and lots of pain. We got away from the crowds and he helped me stretch. I sat down in the rain, but didn’t care that I was getting even more wet. I just wanted the pain to go away.

I never went to the recovery tent to get food, even though a banana would have helped. I just wanted to get home and shower. I brought another protein bar with me in the car. We walked there– very, very slowly.

As we walked there I heard my name. Matt Slusher, or Boobtubios on Twitter, had just run the half. This is the first time we met in real life. It was great to see a friendly face! We got in the car and I ate my protein bar. But the cars in the parking lot weren’t moving at all. I called my mom and my Yia Yia. After 30 minutes, I got out and walked back up to the bathrooms. I again was cramping up and feeling sick. Finally, Patrick found another way out of the parking lot and picked me up. We went home. I took a long, hot bath. I was so tired, especially since I only got a few hours of sleep the night before. I knew I shouldn’t, but I took a nap anyway. The nap turned into hours of sleep.

When I woke up, I could barely move. I certainly couldn’t walk. It took me a while, but finally I got ready for my victory dinner. Patrick took me to Red Hot and Blue in Gaithersburg. I wore my medal there! I had a whole onion loaf, half-rack of ribs, corn bread, and hush puppies. We also had dessert. It was so good! 

When we got back home, I took another long, hot bath. This time with Epsom salt. Patrick helped massage my I.T. Band and legs which helped a lot. I got in bed by 11 p.m. and fell right asleep. I woke up early Monday and had a long massage at Massage Envy with Fritz (by far the best massous on the planet!). He helped me stretch out. I can walk now, but I’m still in pain. It will most likely take me the whole week to recover. 

But I’d love to start running again. My next race is a half-marathon in Baltimore in October. I’d like to run before that, but I’m going to wait to plan anything until I recover from this race. I’m still very happy and proud of myself. My goal for Baltimore: run the half in two hours or less.

Popularity: 71% [?]

After the DC Twestival, I headed over the Skye Lounge to hang with Angie Goff (OMG!) and friends. It’s for the Hearts and Tails Event. Nakeva Corothers and I hung out the entire time, enjoying the music and the cupcakes! All the money raised goes to Fashion for Paws and the Washington Humane Society. Angie put together a wonderful slide show that had many of us howling– (pun intended). The next day, our pictures appeared in BisNow!

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I had a great time at the DC Twestival. What makes this event unique, is that it’s global. There were 202 Twestivals going on from Atlanta to Dubai, and from DC to Rome. Not only were we able to meet some of our Twitter Friends, but we helped raise money to build wells in underdeveloped countries.

Popularity: 30% [?]