Clyde Bentley took the long route to academia. He worked in the newspaper industry for 25 years before earning his doctorate in journalism at the University of Oregon in 2000. His dissertation, which examined the impact of consumer habits on newspaper readership, grew out of his prior experiences as a reporter, photographer, copy editor and managing editor of the Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) Press.

He took a sabbatical from the newspaper business to get a master’s degree in journalism and management at the University of Texas in Austin in 1990. He worked as an advertising manager at the San Antonio Recorder-Times and Irving News before moving back to the Pacific Northwest, where he began working as the general manager of the daily East Oregonian in Pendleton in 1993. He moved to Eugene to begin his Ph.D. in 1997.

Bentley also received management training at the Poynter Institute and the American Press Institute before joining the Missouri School of Journalism in August 2001.