David Henderson has enjoyed and put to good use his substantive talents, accomplishments, and credentials throughout his career. His career as a television and radio newsman 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 and CBS Morning News; for the CBS Radio Network; and covered stories throughout the U.S. and Asia.
David today is a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.
Here are some of David’s career highlights followed by detail:
In Asia for CBS News, David covered conflicts and major news events in South Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, Guam, South Korea, Bangladesh, and India. He was assigned to negotiate high level contacts with the communist government of North Vietnam and 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. David also served as bureau chief and producer of satellite news reports in Hong Kong and Japan.
David was awarded a national Emmy Award while at CBS News for a series of reports on airline accidents that ultimately led to a change in federal aviation regulations and made airline travel safer by banning dangerous plastics from airline interiors. David reported on never-before published research that the plastic interiors of airliners emitted toxic gas when burned, rendering a burning aircraft akin to a deadly gas chamber.
David transitioned from his career at CBS News to use his communication skills on new approaches of advising executive leaders at many major corporations and organizations on approaches to enhance competitive leadership and capture fast-moving opportunities in the digital era.
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The unique style he crafted embodies the elements of accurate, authentic news storytelling to convey engaging corporate messages to precise audiences at the right time. He has demonstrated the value for organizations to convey tangible and shared value and benefits rather than the dull and overused rhetoric of “PR.”
Communications methods have undergone a sea change at blinding speed. It’s all about engaging and interactive sharing of ideas and information. And, we are still learning. Let’s face it … no one really cares any longer when a company or organization boasts “About” itself, whether on a web site or press release.
David spent years teaming with leading executives at a wide range of corporations, including Gulfstream Aerospace, Bombardier, Learjet, Frontier Airlines, the BBC, Imperial Sugar Corp., DECCA and London – the global classical music corporations, the National 4-H Council, the government of Kuwait, and CSX, one of America’s largest freight rail systems, during the railroad’s acquisition of Conrail. David has advised corporate chief executives on engaging approaches to control and mitigate crisis situations, always using the ethical tenets of journalism.
David is an acknowledged global advisor when it comes to utilizing digital technology in helping companies achieve authentic differentiation and competitive leadership. He has worked with major corporations, universities, and governments to capitalize on the evolving trends of digital and online news storytelling to convey core value and purpose, especially as the influence of mainstream news media began to shrink globally.
David worked with client Bombardier to enhance the appeal and image of Learjet, an established name in corporate aviation that needed a new story, a facelift. With clever photos and actual news stories that captured the media’s attention, awareness for Learjet’s new model 45 soared and got the attention of an important audience, wealthy tech entrepreneurs. Within weeks, sales skyrocketed.
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 positioning story he crafted and framed 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.
The 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. Much of the world knew about the remarkable concert except in America where “opera” has had less appeal. In order to build excitement over the concert’s recording, David turned to contacts at NPR and the popular program “Saturday Morning Edition” where the story targeted the right audience.
The result was a frenzy of interest for the Three Tenors Concert recording and concert video. “The Three Tenors Concert” quickly became the biggest-selling classical recording of all time, selling more than eleven million CDs.
David’s career grew in the field of crisis management for organizations and corporations through the power of stories, video, and photos communicated on special news-oriented websites. 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 and influence of digital technology and engaging stories.
A special news website that David created immediately after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf off Mexico provided news story ideas, contacts, and leads for journalists from around the world who flocked to Louisiana to cover the event… and, the result of the media coverage was 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 strategic communications, the tenets of journalism, and news writing for many years as an adjunct professor 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.
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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