Upcoming Appearances
- Nov. 16. Advertising Women of New York, New York City. Moderating panel on corporate social responsibility.
- Jan. 17. National Retail Federation, New York City. Moderating panel on trends in retail and marketing.
- Contact me to schedule a presentation.
- Jayne's Confident Consumer Column
- Ideeli flash-sale site sells high fashion for less
- Tips on picking out high-quality gifts
- Toys are getting safer, but injuries still alarming
- Shopping locally for gifts has benefits and limitations
- Not all toys are created equally safe
- Gift buyers like local mom-and-pop shops' unique choices
- Wal-Mart, Apple, others roll out apps for holiday shoppers
- Mobile apps can help you spend wisely
- Watch out for fake online reviews and review sites
- Tips for sorting out the deal on deals
- Toymaker to pay $1.3M in tainted toy case
- Behind the bargains at T.J. Maxx, Marshalls
- Pediatrics group says no to crib bumpers
- Car-safety group: Half of child booster seats pose risks
- Layaway makes a comeback, with fees and benefits
- Reebok settles FTC case over toning shoes for $25 million
- Missoni was just the latest target of 'retail scalpers'
- Study: Most parents fail child car safety seat test
- Cosmetic surgery gets cheaper, faster, scarier
- Some non-plastic-surgeons disciplined for disastrous results
- Non-surgical cosmetic options also have risks
- Cosmetic surgery gets cheaper, faster, scarier
- Lack of training can be deadly in cosmetic surgery
- What to ask when picking a plastic or cosmetic surgeon
- Some non-plastic-surgeons disciplined for disastrous results
- Websites selling daily deals lose luster
- Consumer agency pushes for safety rules for table saws
- Illegal used cribs still for sale on Craigslist, eBay
- Crib bumpers present risk and little likely benefit, safety advocates say
- Wal-Mart U.S. leader expects 'serious' inflation
- Watch for red flags of scams if you 'win' prize
- NHTSA to look into burns from car seat heaters
- House budget cuts target poison control, product safety
- Rent-A-Husband founder settles fraud charges
- Car seat heaters become safety target
- Engineers who wrote report can't 'vindicate' Toyota
- Multilevel marketing or 'pyramid?' Sales people find it hard to earn much
- Some high-end retailers lower their prices
- Bleak back-to-school shopping season looms
- Consumers turn to rent-to-own stores in rickety economy
- Specialty retailers' sales show teens still shopping
- Educate yourself before buying extended warranty
- It can make more sense to lease a car, but beware of drawbacks
- Food doesn't have to take up a huge chunk of your budget
- Jayne's Profile
More USA Today stories by Jayne ...
Jayne O'Donnell
USA Today Consumer Reporter and
Confident Consumer Columnist
Co-Author of GenBuy
Jayne O’Donnell combines a few of her favorite subjects in this, her first book: Cars, clothes and the often-confounding qualities that make young people tick.
Gen BuY takes a lively but serious look at the forces that drive young consumers to buy, while digging deep into the whys. That’s how Jayne has approached the myriad subjects she’s covered in her long career as a Washington, D.C.-based reporter.
A consumer reporter for USA TODAY, Jayne has covered the demise and comeback (and near demise again) of department stores, profiled the colorful founders of Juicy Couture and chronicled the hard life of a toy store manager at Christmas, just to name a few of her standout retail stories.
From business crime to children’s safety
In more than 15 years at the country’s largest-circulation newspaper, Jayne has covered everything from children’s product safety to white collar crime to airlines. From sociopaths in the boardroom to teen drivers in the emergency room, her reporting has opened eyes and saved lives.
Her automotive expertise and investigative reporting skills have helped Jayne expose many of the major auto and product safety hazards of the last several years in USA TODAY. These include articles on deadly teen crashes, the dangers of front and side air bags to children and companies failing to report safety defects in children’s products to the government.
A Multimedia presence
For the past several years, Jayne has also contributed parenting and automotive articles for women’s magazines including Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day and Parents, as well as to the automotive website Edmunds.com.
Jayne is frequently interviewed. She has appeared often on Good Morning America, Fox Business Network and on CBS, CNN and MSNBC programs. She also hosted Live! With Regis & Kelly (and formerly “Kathie Lee”) segments during the New York Auto Show for many years.
Award-winning
Jayne has won several public service and journalism awards for her work alerting the public to auto safety hazards. They include Detroit Press Foundation first-place awards for her 2005 series on teen driving and, in 1997, for exposing the dangers air bags posed to children. Her reporting on air bags in the late 1990s is widely credited with prompting the government’s actions to make them safer, including the new "smart" air bags and the warning labels now in every new vehicle. In August 2005, the Governors Highway Safety Association made Jayne the first journalist to ever win its "Chairman’s Award," which was presented for her "dedication to improving highway safety" with articles on teen driving, seat belt usage and other issues.
Vroom-vroom!
Along with keeping a close eye on consumer affairs, Jayne stays current on automotive developments. She has evaluated at least one car or truck every week for 20 years. She is a graduate of the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving and the Skip Barber racing school. She has been a juror for the North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards since they were first presented in 1994.
Jayne is a graduate of University of Maryland’s College of Journalism and did graduate work at George Washington University’s School of Business. She lives in McLean, Virginia.
