YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Dan O’Brien, managing editor of The Business Journal, was inducted into the Youngstown Press Club Hall of Fame on Wednesday, Sept. 23, at Stambaugh Auditorium.
O’Brien could not attend the ceremony while recovering from surgery, but he accepted the honor in a recorded speech. He called the recognition unexpected, much like his nearly 40-year career in journalism.
“I never really considered a career in journalism,” he said.
O’Brien had planned to become a history professor. As a college student, though, he filled his notebooks with drawings of political figures. After showing some of his work to Andrea Wood, founder of what was then the Youngstown-Warren Business Journal, he began drawing cartoons about local politics for the publication.
“Within a week, I had a James A. Traficant cartoon inked up,” O’Brien said. “What began as an amusing aside has turned into a nearly 40-year gig.”
A Youngstown native and Ursuline High School graduate, O’Brien earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Youngstown State University. He continued drawing for The Business Journal while living in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore areas, sending his work by FedEx. After returning to the Mahoning Valley, he joined the publication as a full-time reporter in 1998.
His reporting has covered advanced manufacturing, the automotive and oil and gas industries and state and local government. O’Brien has received three first-place Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards from the Press Club of Cleveland. His cartoons and caricatures have appeared in The Plain Dealer, Washington Monthly and editions of “Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year.”
In his remarks, O’Brien recalled reporting on business setbacks, including the closure of General Motors’ Lordstown plant, alongside the growth of YBI and America Makes. He pointed to Kimberly-Clark’s investment in Warren as a more recent sign of opportunity.
O’Brien also addressed the pressures facing local journalism, saying smaller newsrooms and tighter budgets have reduced resources for investigative reporting. He praised the reporters, photographers and broadcasters who continue to serve the region.
“These challenges have not deterred the work of the local dedicated print and broadcast professionals who work in the field every day to provide a public service that is so critical to our democracy,” he said.
O’Brien was inducted alongside broadcaster Boots Bell, journalism educator Carolyn Martindale, Bloomberg News reporter Mark Niquette and retired Vindicator chief photographer Bob Yosay. The press club also inducted Simeon Booker, Helen Hart Hurlbert and Warren P. Williamson Jr. in its new media pioneers category.
O’Brien thanked the press club, his colleagues at The Business Journal and his family for their support.
Pictured at top: Dan O’Brien’s brother, Tim, stepson, Michael, and son, Ian, join The Business Journal founder Andrea Wood at the Youngstown Press Club Hall of Fame ceremony Sept. 23 at Stambaugh Auditorium. O’Brien accepted his induction in a recorded speech while recovering from surgery.