Cleveland biz editor takes buyout

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Paul O’Donnell, the business editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has taken the paper’s buyout offer and will be leaving the paper.

His last day is Oct. 10. No replacement has been named, but O’Donnell told his staff in a meeting Thursday that editor Susan Goldberg asked about potential replacements.

“Paul was an extremely hard worker and got a lot out of his staff,” said Peter Krouse, a former business reporter who now covers federal courts at the paper.

“I went through a lot of soul searching,” said O’Donnell, 48. “The economy is going to be the story for the next five years.”

O’Donnell has been responsible for the newspaper’s daily Business section and weekly Driving section since April 2005. He supervises a staff of 18, including 12 reporters who chronicle the activities of Cleveland’s business community.

O’Donnell joined The Plain Dealer in 1990 to launch the first of the newspaper’s five suburban news bureaus. After leading the Lake County news bureau for eight years, he moved to the downtown newsroom as a deputy metro editor and took over the newspaper’s coverage of Cuyahoga County suburbs. He also directly supervised a three-person reporting team covering economic development and public policy discussions involving casinos, convention centers and NASA Glenn’s future.

His reporting staffs have won multiple state journalism awards ranging from breaking news to community service. Before joining The Plain Dealer, he worked at three other Ohio newspapers in various reporting and editing positions. He worked for seven years at The News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio, where he was executive editor.

In April 2005, he succeeded Debbie Van Tassel, who was appointed assistant managing editor/administration. Van Tassel had been business editor since 1999.

O’Donnell is a 1981 graduate of Bowling Green State University.