Alissa Krinsky
TVNewser Contributor
Former ABC World News Now and World News This Morning anchor Heather Cabot has forged a new career. The mother of 2-year-old twins, Cabot is the founder of the blog, The Well Mom. She’s also a Yahoo! Web Life Editor and a columnist for The Huffington Post. Cabot and her family live in California. Her husband is former 60 Minutes producer Neeraj Khemlani, now VP of Programming and Development with Yahoo! Media Group.
1. TVNewser: Moving from a career in TV news to one that combines new and old media…
Cabot: Keeps me on my toes. I never thought that TechCrunch and LifeHacker would be staples of my media diet. But there you go. Life takes you to some unexpected places sometimes. The best part of being a consumer spokesperson for Yahoo! is that I get to learn something new every day and share useful tips with viewers and listeners. Publishing The Well Mom, my weekly ezine that empowers moms to better care for themselves in mind, body and spirit, allows me to be entrepreneurial and creative on my timetable. Writing in my sweats with a cup of coffee and my twin two-year-olds napping down the hall is a gift.
2. TVNewser: When it comes to covering issues of importance to mothers, America’s news organizations…
Cabot: …could probably do better if they had more resources. But, let’s clarify. Issues that matter to moms matter to most everybody. Whether it’s the healthcare crisis, the lack of affordable and high quality childcare, low achieving public schools, workplace discrimination, food and product safety, global warming or skyrocketing gas prices, these are stories that need to be covered with depth and doggedness. It’s becoming harder and harder to do real reporting in the face of industry-wide budget cuts and lay-offs.
I think the few news outlets that devote regular coverage to the work-life balance do an excellent job. I am a huge fan of both the Wall Street Journal‘s Sue Shellenbarger and the New York Times‘ Lisa Belkin.
3. TVNewser: Now that I’m a viewer of network news — instead of in TV news myself — my perspective on how the networks cover news:
Cabot: These days, the TV is rarely on when the evening news or morning shows air. Like most Americans, I get most of my news online during the day. I do TiVo ABC’s World News and find it is a pretty thorough wrap-up of the day’s events.
4. TVNewser: What I do and don’t miss about working in TV news:
Cabot: I really miss the adrenaline and the noise of a busy newsroom. I’ve worked with a lot of smart people through the years. TV news is definitely a team sport and I miss that. I do not miss the weird hours and never being able to commit to plans with family and friends. I do not miss image consultants!
5. TVNewser: The funniest thing that happened on-air during my World News Now tenure:
Cabot: I had a pregnancy-induced giggle attack in the final segment of the show one morning. It was so bad that I had mascara running down my face and could not even say goodbye as we wrapped. Thankfully, my friend and co-anchor Ron Corning is a master at handling any situation. He got us to the break and I was still laughing during the commercial.