Eyes on Innovators: Tom Davidson
Meet Tom Davidson, who teaches entrepreneurial journalism at the University of Maryland and American University.
Tom Davidson likes a challenge. That’s why — even though he has a storied career as a both a print and digital journalist — he’s not satisfied with doing status quo journalism.
He often comes back to a quote from Robert Niles – a friend he met at a week-long boot camp for entrepreneurial journalists at the Knight Digital Media Center at the University of Southern California. Niles, a traditional print reporter and web editor turned media startup founder said: “When the music stops, I want to have a chair to sit in.”
Guided by this simple principle, Davidson left PBS after five years to focus on his journalism-inspired product development consultancy. He said he believes all journalists should understand the economic and product side of journalism.
This burning passion to marry journalism and business also led him to teaching. Since 2011, he’s taught graduate-level entrepreneurial courses as an adjunct professor at American University and at the University of Maryland.
In his courses, students develop and pitch business ideas. It’s a challenging class, he said, in which students have to pass a few milestones along the way. At the end of the semester, Davidson assembles a panel of entrepreneurial-savvy leaders and investors so students can learn what it feels like to pitch their idea.
“It’s making it real. Even though there are no actual stakes, it forces them to think as if there were real life stakes,” Davidson said.
It’s important for students studying journalism to understand business and how to position yourself as an entrepreneur because journalists no longer are beholden to the whims of the job market, he said.
“That’s why I focus on teaching entrepreneurial journalism. It’s about at least having a basic understanding of the economics they’re going into, because they’ve changed so radically,” Davidson said. “Some want to take that and say, ‘I can fill those holes in the information landscape in print or broadcast; I can fill some of those gaps.’”
Many of his students have gone on to careers in news and media, and several, he said, are even working on the business side of media. One such student worked as a producer at Patch when she was taking Davidson’s class, but landed a job with the Washington Post’s Trove News Lab soon after. She is currently a producer at the Post.
Another student, Davidson said, transitioned from an online editor position at USA Today to a member of the innovation team at Gannett post-Davidson’s class. Now, he added, she is director of audience insights and data at Politico.
“[I see] many similar examples, and in all honesty, the credit for their awesomeness belongs to them [the students]. I do think that a richer understanding of problem-solving and its ties to sustainability have helped them,” Davidson said.
Would you like to share your story? Contact Melissa DiPento at melissa.dipento@journalism.cuny.edu.
