O’Donnell named editor of Dallas Biz Journal

Paul O’Donnell, who has been with the Dallas Morning News and was once business editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has been hired to be the next editor of the Dallas Business Journal.

He starts on May 30. His hiring was announced to the staff on Tuesday morning.

“I can’t wait to get started with a young, aggressive staff in one of the most vibrant business towns in America,” said O’Donnell in an email to Talking Biz News. “I love ACBJ’s digital-strategy and see nothing but upside to the DBJ’s potential.”

O’Donnell joined the News in 2009 as an assistant business editor leading coverage of the economy, technology, retailing, the food and hospitality industries and small business. A year later, he moved into the digital space as the founding editor of the News’ flagship iPad app, which was among the first newspaper apps in Apple’s app store. The app went on to achieve financial and audience success, with more than 100,000 downloads and nearly 6 million page a views a month at its peak.

In October, he began leading efforts to incorporate interactive storytelling on Dallasnews.com. His work has ranged from development of special web pages for major projects such as West and Profiting Off the Poor to the creation of digital display packages for special coverage such as Deadly Affection and How the Texas Testing Bubble Popped.

Since the beginning of this year, he also has been working with The News’ business staff to boost its online presence. The section’s page views are up more than 48% from last year and unique visitors have nearly doubled.

Before moving to Dallas, he had a highly acclaimed career in Cleveland, where he served in several key editing roles, including business editor.

During his four years as business editor, The Plain Dealer’s staff won multiple national and state reporting awards for its coverage of such topics as energy dependency and the retirement conundrum facing many workers today. His Business section also was twice recognized as being among the best in the country.

Earlier in his career, he was executive editor of a 50,000-circulation daily in suburban Cleveland and a reporter covering everything from courts and crime to education and national politics.