Chicago Tribune hires Ori to be real estate columnist

Ryan Ori

Mary Ellen Podmolik, assistant managing editor for business at the Chicago Tribune, sent out the following announcement:

Ryan Ori , a commercial real estate reporter at Crain’s, will join us as a columnist on March 13. Ryan, as many of you know, has a good track record at Crain’s of doggedly covering real estate development and corporate moves. Joining us as a columnist covering the commercial real estate and development beat, he will be a critical part of our mission – attracting readers by aggressively breaking news and writing about Chicago.
With Ryan’s hiring, that brings to seven the staff additions to our department since January 2016. The Tribune has made a big investment in business coverage, and I know everyone is working hard to make that investment worthwhile. I couldn’t be more thrilled about our team and the success I’m sure is ahead for us.

Ori has been with Crain’s Chicago Business since July 2011. Before joining Crain’s he spent 18 years at the Peoria Journal Star, winning multiple Illinois Press Association and Illinois Associated Press awards. In Peoria, his work involved everything from breaking news on large-scale layoffs at Methodist Medical Center to helping determine the AP Top 25 college basketball rankings as a voting sportswriter.

A native of East Peoria, Ori is a 1993 graduate of Bradley University.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.