Darrel Rowland

Darrel Rowland has worked at the Columbus Dispatch for nearly 30 years, and currently serves as Public Affairs Editor. In this role, Rowland supervises coverage of state government/politics, a “franchise” for Ohio’s capital city newspaper, through four staffers in Columbus and two in Washington. He led the Dispatch’s “Side Effects” investigation of little-known pharmacy benefit managers that sparked a study showing they overcharged the state of Ohio up to nearly $200M, leading to sweeping reforms, legislation, litigation, and changes in many other states.

Rowland directed coverage of the 2018 Ohio mid-term elections, including on-the-trail reporting, campaign ad watches, debates, and in-depth examination of issues. He piloted a 2016 campaign team with coverage from 10 states, national convention, debates, numerous exclusives and enterprise stories including pieces that showed how Donald Trump won. He conducted the Dispatch Poll, recognized as one of the nation’s most accurate. Rowland oversees The Daily Briefing, for years the most-viewed news blog at The Dispatch. He appears regularly on local TV and radio public affairs shows, as well as podcasts at dispatch.com. Along with his editing duties, Rowland writes approximately 200 stories and 7,000 tweets a year.