Tom is founder and president of the Banyan Project, which is pioneering a sustainable and easily replicable new model for community Web journalism that’s built on the sturdy and inherently equitable and inclusive base of consumer co-op ownership . Banyan’s mission is to help seed independent news co-ops in underserved communities across the nation and to support them with an array of services that are tailored to help them thrive and activate community engagement. Tom shaped Banyan’s distinctive model as a
Tom is a seasoned editor and entrepreneur with a passion for strengthening journalism, democracy and justice. As an editor he has supervised reporting that has won an array of major journalism awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes. He broke in as an entrepreneur as the founding editor and publisher of Jazz Magazine ; he has also been the founding publisher of another print magazine and three Web publications in addition to Banyan. His writings on strengthening journalism and democracy have been published by
Positions Tom has held include national correspondent, national editor, and associate managing editor for project reporting at The Chicago Tribune ; night national editor of The New York Times , and managing editor of The Kansas City Times . He later served for a decade as the editor and publisher of UU World , the national magazine of the Unitarian Universalist religious denomination, and he has served for 15 years as consulting editor for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Perh