Editor’s note: This article is a special feature for the Tufts Daily Alumni Newsletter that does not represent the Daily’s standard journalistic practices.
David Meyers (LA’96) is president of DBM Content Solutions, providing communications and operations support to organizations engaged in breaking down partisan walls and improving American democracy. Previously, David was the founding publisher and executive editor of The Fulcrum, a nonprofit news platform covering the democracy reform movement. Before launching The Fulcrum, David spent over two decades at CQ Roll Call, a leading publisher of political news and information. A graduate of Tufts University, David is a past president of the Tufts University Alumni Association and the current chair of the Tufts Daily Alumni Council. While attending Tufts, David was editor-in-chief of The Tufts Daily.
In the spirit of our podcast “My Daily Story,” we’d like to start by asking — what’s your Daily story?
I arrived at Tufts intent on preparing for a career in journalism, so I quickly joined the news department, which at that time was just a handful of people. I was soon moving through the ranks and eventually joined the management team and became editor-in-chief my senior year. Things were very different in the mid-1990s. Everything was print focused (we built the first rudimentary Daily website during my senior year), we edited on floppy disks, and advertising was still a strong revenue stream. In addition to learning how to be a journalist, I also learned a lot about managing people through my experience at the Daily, from coaching writers to making personnel and business decisions. And we had a lot of fun along the way — I’ll never forget debating a vertical headline after a huge win by the men’s basketball team.
The Daily editorial board is pictured in fall 1995.
For those who may not know, can you share a bit more about The Tufts Daily Alumni Council? What is its relationship to the paper?
The Tufts Daily Alumni Council was the brainchild of Daily staff who envisioned an organization that can support the Daily itself. This was a significant change from prior efforts to launch Daily alumni organizations that had been focused on building connections among alumni. I was thrilled to be invited to join the board when it launched, because I would have loved to have had a similar resource when I was a student journalist and I understand how meaningful our work can be. Currently, our focus is on professional educating, networking and mentoring. In addition we are working with the Daily leaders to allocate the $36,000 raised by the council in the previous fiscal year. That money will make it easier for more students to be part of the Daily through stipends and work-study, ensuring that financial barriers do not limit participation.
While the Daily had a formal role in the creation and initial operation of the alumni council, we changed the charter after our first two years to give alumni complete control (after all, it is an alumni body) — although the student leaders play a massive role in helping us establish goals. The editor-in-chief, business director and alumni liaisons are intimately involved in our work. As chair, I work regularly with the editor-in-chief to make sure our goals align and to provide support for short- and long-term programs.
The Daily just concluded its first major capital campaign, “Expanding Access,” which raised $36,000 and broke all our previous fundraising records. What was it like to see that level of support from the Daily community?
I am so proud of my fellow Daily alumni. We set ambitious fundraising goals and hit most of them, ensuring more people can be part of the daily regardless of their financial position. For too long, many students were not able to join the Daily because they needed to work at a paying job in order to stay in college. While we aren’t solving broad financial aid challenges at Tufts, we are now able to support a number of students who otherwise would be working elsewhere. Because this was our first major campaign, we didn’t know what to expect. But now we have a baseline for the next campaign and I’m confident that we can do even better next time.
What’s on deck for the Alumni Council this semester? How can people get involved?
The Council is excited to be supporting a new educational program for Daily staff. “The Power of Storycraft” forum taking place Oct. 21 will bring media and communications professionals (many of them Daily alumni) to campus to talk about some of the most pressing career issues future journalists will face. In addition, we will start dispensing funds raising through the Expanding Access campaign and will continue planning a networking and mentoring program through which alumni and current staff can connect in one-on-one or small group engagements. These will help experienced alumni provide advice to students in a more personalized manner, compared to a panel discussion or similar event.
David and the Daily team emerged victorious in the annual Daily v. Observer basketball game (fall 1994).
How has the Daily evolved since your time as Editor in Chief? Where do you see the paper going in the future?
The two biggest changes I’ve seen are the shift to a digital-first publishing plan and a huge growth in staffing. When I graduated, we were focused on a five-day-per-week print schedule, with an afterthought of a website.
Revenue was tied purely to print advertising, which was still a very profitable business model at the time. But given our deadlines, articles covering late sports or Sunday night TCU Senate meetings often were not published until two days after they occurred. Now, the Daily can cover those things as they happen, and with the addition of video and podcasts, the Daily covers Tufts in ways we couldn’t even imagine in 1996. I also could never picture the Daily having as many editors and reporters as it does now. That growth has enabled Daily to create new and innovative coverage methods as well as tackle important internal issues like diversity and alumni engagement. It’s really great to see.
You’ve spent your career as an editor and writer about politics and democracy reform. What do you make of the current moment, and where does student journalism fit in?
There are so many ways to address this question, so let me just say this: Most of America doesn’t really understand how partisanship defines our elections. Thanks to closed, partisan primaries and gerrymandering, many congressional elections are decided well before Election Day. And then we end up with a Congress where members of both parties are incentivized to oppose the other side’s ideas rather than work toward compromise and legislative success. Student journalists have an opportunity to redefine the public’s understanding of politics and elections because they are living in an era when awareness is growing and they will not be predisposed to cover such issues the same ways their predecessors have done it. I encourage student journalists at Tufts, in particular, to study the data produced by Tisch College and think about how it can inform their current and future work.
