diff --git a/django/core/management.py b/django/core/management.py
index 21d867f2c57f8..25fb73d8ce280 100644
--- a/django/core/management.py
+++ b/django/core/management.py
@@ -1436,7 +1436,7 @@ def dump_data(app_labels, format='json', indent=None):
         for model in get_models(app):
             objects.extend(model.objects.all())
     try:
-        print serializers.serialize(format, objects, indent=indent)
+        return serializers.serialize(format, objects, indent=indent)
     except Exception, e:
         sys.stderr.write(style.ERROR("Unable to serialize database: %s\n" % e))
 dump_data.help_doc = 'Output the contents of the database as a fixture of the given format'
@@ -1582,7 +1582,7 @@ def execute_from_command_line(action_mapping=DEFAULT_ACTION_MAPPING, argv=None):
             parser.print_usage_and_exit()
     elif action == 'dumpdata':
         try:
-            action_mapping[action](args[1:], options.format, options.indent)
+            print action_mapping[action](args[1:], options.format, options.indent)
         except IndexError:
             parser.print_usage_and_exit()
     elif action in ('startapp', 'startproject'):
diff --git a/tests/modeltests/fixtures/models.py b/tests/modeltests/fixtures/models.py
index d82886a6c4c39..50714b7b040e5 100644
--- a/tests/modeltests/fixtures/models.py
+++ b/tests/modeltests/fixtures/models.py
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ class Meta:
 [<Article: Time to reform copyright>, <Article: Poker has no place on ESPN>, <Article: Python program becomes self aware>]
 
 # Dump the current contents of the database as a JSON fixture
->>> management.dump_data(['fixtures'], format='json')
+>>> print management.dump_data(['fixtures'], format='json')
 [{"pk": "3", "model": "fixtures.article", "fields": {"headline": "Time to reform copyright", "pub_date": "2006-06-16 13:00:00"}}, {"pk": "2", "model": "fixtures.article", "fields": {"headline": "Poker has no place on ESPN", "pub_date": "2006-06-16 12:00:00"}}, {"pk": "1", "model": "fixtures.article", "fields": {"headline": "Python program becomes self aware", "pub_date": "2006-06-16 11:00:00"}}]
 """}