Davis Named 2004 North Jersey Media Group Journalist in Residence

Award-winning columnist Tom Davis has been selected as the spring 2004 "North Jersey Media Group Journalist in Residence" at Rutgers University. Tom was among several strong candidates at The Record who applied for the fellowship, which lasts a semester.

“We are delighted that a distinguished journalist such as Tom Davis can join us for the coming semester,” notes John Pavlik, Chair of the Journalism and Media Studies Department at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. “Tom is a veteran journalist with roots in journalism at Rutgers.”

The fellowship is a unique partnership and exchange between Rutgers University and North Jersey Media Group designed to strengthen their ties for their mutual benefit. It allows a staffer to teach a journalism course and to take a class--for free--in a subject that will enhance their on-the-job skills and knowledge. The university benefits by having a trained professional with up-to-date, cutting-edge skills and practical experience at the front of the classroom, working closely with Rutgers faculty to inspire and instruct students interested in print journalism. NJMG and Rutgers also benefit because our company gets an early line on prospective talent for its two dailies and 34 weeklies.

“Tom is excited about the fellowship and looks forward to working at Rutgers for a semester,” said Doug Clancy, assistant managing editor at The Record, the flagship newspaper of NJMG. “He will be a committed mentor to his students, work well with the faculty, and be a wonderful ambassador of the newspaper as it looks to forge closer ties with the university.”

Starting in January, Tom will teach a news writing course in print journalism once a week at Rutgers University while being paid by NJMG. He also will participate in faculty meetings in the mass communications department and be involved in the activities at the university's Journalism Resources Institute, which conducts on-going journalism training for news professionals and research and outreach to journalism education and industry throughout New Jersey, the U.S. and internationally.
While at Rutgers, Tom plans to take a course in media ethics. He hopes to sharpen his understanding of contemporary ethical challenges facing journalists in an increasingly technological and global environment.

Tom Davis has distinguished himself as a reporter at The Record of Bergen County, where he covers the military, the city of Hackensack and several neighboring towns, and he writes a column on mental illness and addiction. He's traveled with Air Force crews deployed in the War on Terrorism. Two years ago, he followed a National Guard unit to the Fresh Kills landfill and provided one of the first eyewitness accounts of the relocated ruins of the World Trade Center. He's also visited military bases across the country, and covered their involvement in the ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2003, he won a first-place award in the New Jersey Press Association's annual Better Newspaper Contest. It was his fourth such honor. In 1990, he was awarded the NJPA's Robert P. Kelly award, which is the state's rookie-of-the-year prize for young journalists.

Prior to coming to The Record in January 2001, Tom worked for The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.; The Press of Atlantic City; The Ocean County Observer; The Delaware State News; and The Princeton Packet. He's also freelanced for New Jersey Monthly, Reuters and Baseball America.
Tom is a 1989 graduate of Rutgers University, where he majored in Journalism and English. He was associate news editor, news editor and senior news editor of The Daily Targum from 1986-88. There, he worked on a variety of projects that helped the newspaper win Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Crown Award. He has just finished a novel that's based on his experiences as a reporter for The Delaware State News. Tom lives in Metuchen with his wife and two children.