Charles W. Henderson is an American media executive, technology executive, and journalist.
[Goss, Fred]
''Newsletter on Newsletters'' May 23, 2005[Goss, Fre]
''Newsletter on Newsletters'' May 23, 2005[Laermer, Richard. "A Source of News on AIDS." ''Editor and Publisher'' September 5, 1987] He is president of media and technology companies
NewsRx LLC and
ScholarlyMedia
ScholarlyEditions is a publishing imprint of ScholarlyMedia, LLC. The imprint publishes full-length eBooks in ePUB and PDF formats containing material from the over four million article summaries in the ScholarlyNews database of its partner, NewsR ...
LLC.
He was co-founder of
Video Concert Hall the first nationwide music video TV network.
[McCullaugh, Jim. "Atlanta Firm Claims First Ever Nationwide Cable Music Show." ''Billboard''. 3 March 1980 p. 1, p. 38] A ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' cover story named him one of “6 Who Made a Difference.”
[Zimmerman, David, Lou Ziegler, and Patrick O'Driscoll. "6 Who Made a Difference." ''USA Today'' December 11, 1985 p. 1] He has also been on the cover of
Billboard magazine
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the musi ...
.
Early life and education
Henderson was born in
Fitzgerald, Georgia
Fitzgerald is a city in and the county seat of Ben Hill County in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 9,053. It is the principal city of the Fitzgerald Micropolitan Statistical A ...
, beginning his media career at eleven years old as a paperboy for the ''
Daily Tifton Gazette''.
In 1964, the campaign manager for the
Lyndon Johnson-
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
presidential election heard from a Democratic Party official about fifteen-year-old Henderson's involvement in civil rights and contacted him to arrange a meeting with Humphrey in Tifton; this led to Henderson's selection as an inaugural staffer with the federal
Project Head Start, which began in 1965.
At 18, he enrolled in the
Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is a constituent college of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, United States. Established in 1915, Grady College offers undergraduate degrees in journalism, advertising, public re ...
,
where he wrote news releases at the university's News Bureau, the university's Office of Public Relations, and, over the summers, the Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta.
[Powers, Judy. "Atlantan of the Week: Charlie Henderson: the PR Man as Reporter," ''Atlanta Gazette,'' 1978, Nov. 26, Vol. 5, issue 13, p. 5]
While an undergraduate at University of Georgia, he also attended
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
, Atlanta, Georgia, as a grant-funded special student where he first encountered the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
(CDC) located on the Emory campus.
An Emory researcher took Henderson to the CDC where he participated in meetings concerning the center's activities. These contacts helped Henderson later when he began publishing medical newsweeklies.
In addition to his 1971 undergraduate BA in Journalism, Henderson holds a 2006 MFA in English (Creative and Professional Writing) from
Western Connecticut State University
Western Connecticut State University (WCSU and WestConn) is a public university in Danbury, Connecticut. It was founded in 1903 as a teacher's college and is part of the Connecticut State University System.
WCSU consists of four schools: the An ...
, Danbury. He was selected for the first week-long
Yale Publishing Course
Yale Publishing Course (YPC), located on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, is an intensive program for magazine, book and online publishing professionals. The course focuses on teaching leadership skills for today's increa ...
. He started working on a doctorate in education at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
, and in 2014 completed his PhD in creative writing at
University of Wales, Trinity Saint David
, image = Crest of TSD.png
, image_size = 200px
, caption = Coat of armsUniversity of Wales Trinity Saint David
, established = 2010 (Saint David's College, Lampeter founded 1822 and opened 1827; royal charter 1828)
, ...
, Lampeter, UK, studying under British playwright
Dic Edwards.
Early media projects
In 1971, Henderson launched a magazine, ''Real Estate Atlanta'', renamed ''Business Atlanta''.
[Taylor, Ron. "Private Enterprise Jumps into AIDS Marketplace." ''Atlanta Constitution''. February 4, 1986] Henderson later published an urban community weekly newspaper, ''Buckhead Atlanta''.
Henderson served as press spokesman for the Atlanta city government as director of the Community Affairs Division in the Department of Community and Human Development.
Subsequently,
Bert Lance
Thomas Bertram "Bert" Lance (June 3, 1931 – August 15, 2013) was an American businessman who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy Carter in 1977. He is known mainly for resigning from the Carter admini ...
, then president of The National Bank of Georgia (part of
Bank of Credit and Commerce International), appointed him the bank's first director of public relations and communications.
He coordinated press activities while Lance moved to President Carter's cabinet as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Henderson left the National Bank of Georgia when Lance left the White House in 1977.
He then contributed to ''
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
'' magazine.
His bylined articles appeared on ''
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
’s'' front page. In 1978 Henderson was selected “Atlantan of the Week” by the ''Atlanta Gazette''.
He moved to Washington, D.C. to be staff correspondent for
Bloomberg BNA
Bloomberg Industry Group (formerly known as Bloomberg BNA, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., and BNA) is an affiliate of Bloomberg L.P. and a source of legal, tax, regulatory, and business information for professionals. It is headquartered in ...
for two years, reporting for ''Washington Financial Reports and Daily Report for Executives''.
Motion pictures and television
TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony ...
, shortly after it was created as an independent motion picture company, hired Henderson as its National Publicist, and then as vice president of TriStar Studios.
[Gordon, Mike]
“Story of Kamehameha Student Might Be Filmed”
''Honolulu Star-Advertiser'', July 20, 2010 While at TriStar, he was one of three PR professionals selected in 1979 by the News Analysis Institute to receive membership in the “Over-100 Club.”
[Hesse, Stephen. "Movie Campaign Wins Top Award." ''Atlanta Journal and Constitution''. 1979, July 4.] Henderson was said to represent “outstanding accomplishment…and his leadership in the creation, preparation and communication of public relations news.”
Shortly before TriStar was sold to
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
and Atlanta-based Coca-Cola in 1982, Henderson left to expand his own media company, Henderson-Crowe Communications, Inc., which founded and produced
Video Concert Hall on November 1, 1979.
["Video Concert Hall Returns to TV Screens Nationwide." ''On Location''. January 1984] This was the first nationwide music video television network, referred to as the precursor to MTV and VH1.
Before then, it was too expensive to secure copyright privileges to air productions. Record labels featured music videos as “promotional ventures” for new albums, and Henderson secured rights to air them on national cable television.
It was understood that the airing would help record companies show viewers popular records in order to increase album sales.
Content on the TV network included concert footage, studio productions, and guest artists.
According to media reports, by May 1980, the show appeared on more than 400 cable TV systems in 48 states, accessing about 2.5 million homes.
While with Video Concert Hall, Henderson was executive producer and writer for the nationwide broadcast TV premiere of
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
’s ''
Thriller'' album's first video, ''
Billie Jean
"Billie Jean" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on January 2, 1983, as the second single from his sixth studio album, '' Thriller'' (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Jackson and ...
''.
The company also produced the syndicated broadcast TV show ''Pre-Awards Special'', an annual video show concerning the Grammy Awards.
[''The Pre-Awards Show: Sunday February 26, 1984'' Metromedia, WNEW-TV New York, New York 1984.] After the sale of ''Pre-Awards Special'' TV programming to
Metromedia
Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMon ...
, the remaining assets of Video Concert Hall were sold to Georgia Public Television, including the studio equipment at Henderson-Crowe Productions in Atlanta.
Current activities
In 1984, Henderson returned to news media and created a series of newsweeklies based on the CDC.
[Fernandes, Manuela. "Health Letters: Let the Reader Beware." ''The New York Times News Service'' 18 Aug, 1995] NewsRx
NewsRx is a media and technology company focusing on digital media, printed media, news services, and knowledge discovery through its BUTTER platform. In 1995 the company was the world's largest producer of health news.Fernandes, Manuela. "He ...
, Henderson's medical newsweekly publishing company, began with the production of ''AIDS Weekly'' in 1985.
In 2008, Henderson added ''VerticalNews'', a division of newsweeklies that covers non-health related fields. , NewsRx publishes 194 newsweeklies on topics including education, finance, aerospace and science.
[Bellury, Phillip. ''Enlightening The World''. Atlanta, GA: The Storyline Group, 2009.] Henderson is executive editor of the 194 newsweeklies.
In 2011, Henderson started book publisher,
ScholarlyMedia
ScholarlyEditions is a publishing imprint of ScholarlyMedia, LLC. The imprint publishes full-length eBooks in ePUB and PDF formats containing material from the over four million article summaries in the ScholarlyNews database of its partner, NewsR ...
, and its imprint,
ScholarlyEditions
ScholarlyEditions is a publishing imprint of ScholarlyMedia, LLC. The imprint publishes full-length eBooks in ePUB and PDF formats containing material from the over four million article summaries in the ScholarlyNews database of its partner, New ...
, which published 3,500 reference book titles in 2011.
Controversy
In 1984, Henderson was co-executive producer of ''Halloween Thriller'', taped in Hollywood and Atlanta. The TV special aired in the top 20 TV markets and much of the U.S. in October 1984, including TV stations WNEW (New York), WFLD (Chicago), KTTV (Los Angeles), WPLG (Miami), WQTV (Boston), and WXIA (Atlanta), for a total of 150 TV stations. Some disagreed with Henderson’s claim that the TV special contained no violence and no offensive clips although it targeted a mature, 18- to 49-year-old audience. Henderson’s promotional literature said, “Elements include video music of the spirit of Halloween – no violence and no Satanic clips.” The one-hour television special was the national broadcast TV premiere of
Thriller album's first video hosted by ''Thriller'' album voice,
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...
. The showing incorporated the “Billie Jean” cut from ''Thriller'' and an appearance by the original cast of the cult-movie classic, ''
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien, who is also ...
'', who performed the song, “Time Warp.”
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...
also performed “Bark at the Moon” on the national broadcast.
Henderson was criticized for starting the ''AIDS Weekly'' newsweekly because the non-governmental publication included policy, research, and statistics that some considered exclusive to the government.
["NewsRx; China News from U.S. Hit by Denial of Service Cyber Attack Originating from China"](_blank)
''Wall Street Journal Professional Edition with Factiva''. January 25, 2010 Also, the publishing staff included journalists rather than medical professionals.
Others praised Henderson for being what the ''
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' called a necessary “watchdog” publication providing needed information to the public.
Henderson strongly opposed influence by pharmaceutical companies and stood against premature reporting of experiments. Henderson reported that on at least five occasions, research on the causes of AIDS and other viral diseases at the CDC might have been tampered with.
In 2010, Henderson's NewsRx branch, ''VerticalNews China'' was the subject of a denial of service cyber attack as a result of controversial news that had been reported in the publications.
[Higgins, Kelly]
"More Victims of Chinese Hacking Attacks Come Forward"
''Dark Reading''. January 14, 2010 The cyber attack was halted when the company's IP service identified the source and blocked it.
Henderson was press spokesman for Kalani Rosell and his family during a Hawaii school admissions policy controversy,
in which Hawaii's Kamehameha Schools, founded to provide education with preference to students of native Hawaiian ancestry, admitted a non-Hawaiian student (Kalani Rosell) in 2002 for the first time in 40 years.
[Liptak, Adam]
, ''The New York Times'', July 24, 2002, p.1
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, C.W.
American medical journalists
American television people
American newspaper journalists
People from Fitzgerald, Georgia
Newsletter publishers (people)
American media executives
Living people
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
Year of birth missing (living people)