David Henderson has enjoyed and put to good use his substantive talents, accomplishments, and credentials throughout his career as a journalist, writer, and advisor. His extensive work in television and radio news spanned three decades.
He is an Emmy Award-winning former investigative journalist and producer for CBS News and was CBS’s bureau chief in Tokyo and Hong Kong. David reported for the CBS Evening News, the Morning News, and for the CBS Radio Network. Before joining CBS News, he covered Congress and the White House for a group of television stations in the Midwest.
David is the author of three books tracking news trends in the digital era.
He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.
Here are some of David’s career highlights followed by detail:
During his years at CBS News, he reported on a wide range of issues and stories, including investigating the dangers of toxic plastics used in passenger airliners at the time that became lethal when heated during otherwise survivable crashes. He received an Emmy Award for the work.
His work for the network included live updates on Watergate and the Presidency, to Russian fishing incursion into U.S. waters and confrontation with the U.S. Navy, to the plight of Jewish Russian dissidents fleeing Russia to find safety and freedom of speech in America. He and CBS News producer Roger Sims uncovered the hidden story of Byssinosis, or so-called brown lung disease that afflicted workers in America’s textile mills, mostly in the South.
David covered conflicts, wars, and major news events throughout Asia and the Middle East for CBS News and interviewed many heads of state. He was assigned to negotiate high level contacts with the communist government of North Vietnam to establish news coverage within that country for the first time by a western television network. As a result, CBS News correspondent John Hart was the first American television newsman to report from North Vietnam. In Asia, he served as bureau chief and producer of satellite news reports in Hong Kong and Japan.
David transitioned from his career at CBS News to be a problem solver and advisor to executive leaders during times of crisis at major corporations and organizations, always using the power of stories.
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The style he crafted embodies the power of accurate and fact-based news storytelling to the right audiences at the right time, particularly as the influence and reach of mainstream news media globally has dwindled.
Communications methods have undergone a sea change at blinding speed. It’s up to you to manage and control what’s said about you because if you don’t, someone else will, and the result won’t be pretty.
David advised leaders at a wide range of organizations, including Gulfstream Aerospace; Bombardier; Learjet; Frontier Airlines; BBC News America; Imperial Sugar Corp.; DECCA and London – the global classical music corporations; Colorado Economic Development; the National 4-H Council; the Louisiana Seafood Industry; the government of Kuwait; and CSX, one of America’s largest freight rail systems, during the railroad’s acquisition of Conrail. He demonstrated methods to control and mitigate crisis situations, always using the ethical tenets of journalism.
David worked with client Bombardier, for example, to recapture the legendary appeal of Learjet in corporate aviation. The famous aircraft named needed a new story. With clever photos and stories, he helped Learjet to capture the media’s attention for Learjet’s new model 45. The stories got the attention of an important new audience — wealthy tech entrepreneurs. Within weeks, sales grew.
He was recruited by Gulfstream Aerospace when the then-privately held company needed to pilot sales of its new ultra-long-range Gulfstream V. His position was to oversee global marketing and communications. Traditional PR and advertising, which had focused in previous attempts on pilots about the technical attributes of the plane, had failed to attract orders. Pilots don’t buy $60-million aircraft but CEOs and wealthy individuals do.
Through a series of globe-circling media tours, the media got to experience flying at 50,000 feet, they got excited, and David showcased that the Gulfstream V was a competitive business tool to help executives win. The Gulfstream V became front page news. It was the darling of TV and print news worldwide, and embraced as a status symbol ever since. In just over a year, the Gulfstream V became the world’s hallmark of corporate aviation. Orders soared to unprecedented levels. The value of Gulfstream’s IPO tripled in value.
In the enormous global industry of classical music, generations had changed and sales of recordings had slumped. David was asked by executives at the recording giant Decca/London Records to create a more contemporary allure for the great names in classical music. One of his challenges was the historic Three Tenors Concert in Rome, a massive event that was all but ignored by the American news media.
The story he crafted focused on the allure of the historic event in Rome rather than opera music … that royalty and celebrities from around the world had jetted to Rome for an enormous music event at Rome’s historic 2nd century Baths of Caracalla along the Appian Way.
A simple, clear headline captured attention: “Never before had the world’s three greatest tenors come together for such a concert.”
It was a music concert like none other in modern-day history. David turned to contacts at NPR and the popular program “Saturday Morning Edition” where the story targeted the right audience. The story’s allure helped bring “opera” to the attention of many who had previously ignored it.
The result was a frenzy of interest for the Three Tenors Concert recording and concert video, aired on most PBS stations in the U.S. “The Three Tenors Concert” quickly became the biggest-selling classical recording of all time, selling more than eleven million CDs. The achievement earned David a Platinum Record/CD Award.
From the Louisiana Seafood industry to Imperial Sugar Company and many other organizations, David achieved tangible and favorable results in short order, all using the power of digital technology and engaging stories.
When the massive BP oil spill occurred in the Gulf off Mexico in 2010, David declined a request from the oil giant to help, choosing instead to work with the Louisiana seafood industry to help out-of-work fishermen, oil workers, and coastal communities. Knowing the world’s news media would flock to New Orleans in search of stories, he oversaw creation of a special news website within a few days that provided news story ideas, contacts, photo and video direction, and leads for journalists. The strategy generated continuing attention for the plight of southern Louisiana, and the media blitz helped to influence a $300-million-plus settlement from the oil company in favor of the seafood industry.
Immediately after the 9-11 attacks on the U.S., he re-established essential access for BBC News and its Washington bureau when the White House, Pentagon and State Department were suddenly put off-limits to foreign news media. Using his extensive contacts, David reopened those doors for the journalists of the world’s largest news organization.
David is author of three books that detail the spectrum of fast-changing strategies, trends, styles, and methods for effective communications in a complex and evolving media world. Two of the books are used widely as university textbooks. The most recent is Making News in the Digital Era.
Stories unite people.
Storytelling – using the disciplines of journalism – is a powerful tool for moving people emotionally, improving retention, and enhancing word-of-mouth sharing.
For more than 25 years, David’s signature style has been to use the power of stories and news-style photos to unite people. Real stories – timely, appealing, visual – capture favorable audience awareness for clients. It is a technique that eclipses traditional marketing and media relations tactics.
In 1998, he co-founded and served as Publisher for 22 years of BoomerCafe.com (now closed), a website that became a popular gathering spot for baby boomers to share life stories and adventures.
David taught the tenets of journalism at the University of Virginia and has been a lecturer at the George Washington University graduate school of communications.
David grew up in the Washington, DC, area. During high school and college, he worked part-time at WAVA radio in Arlington, one of the nation’s first all-news radio stations. Now retired, David travels with his wife; is proud of his grown children and grandchildren; is an avid photographer; published author; enjoys choral, and classical music. David is a licensed pilot who has flown many aircraft, including the Gulfstream IV (longest flight from Beijing to Anchorage), the latest Honda Jet, and private aircraft. He and his wife live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
And, a bit of meaningless trivia. David is a life member of Club De La Mer at Villefranche-sur-Mer, France. A yacht club.
David Henderson’s photo (high resolution, ~2MB) for download – click here.
Photo by Cecil Brathwaite.
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