Darrel Rowland

Darrel Rowland joined ABC 6 in 2022 after spending more than 31 years with the Columbus Dispatch as a reporter, Public Affairs Editor and Senior Editor before his job was eliminated by Gannett, the chain that now owns the news organization.

He and his team had won more than 100 awards, including a pair of national honors as well as six by Rowland just in 2022, ranging from political coverage to investigative reporting to public service journalism. He was president of the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association when his Dispatch position was cut.

As Public Affairs Editor, Rowland supervised Statehouse and political coverage for more than 20 years, attended national political conventions since 1996 and followed John Kasich on the presidential campaign trail in 10 states. Rowland and his team typically won more awards than all other Ohio Statehouse bureaus combined. They pioneered work in coverage of school funding, human trafficking, mental health, the opioid crisis and racial inequities.

Their work was instrumental in the resignation of an Ohio attorney general, the freeing of two men who served more than 20 years in prison after they were wrongfully convicted of murder, the uncovering of more than $40 million in child support money wrongfully withheld by the state and numerous revelations about pharmacy benefit managers that led to a state revamp last year that likely will save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, as well as an $88 million settlement from a PBM that overcharged the state.

Rowland previously worked in Warren, Ohio, where as metro editor his reporters won the most writing awards of any newspaper in Ohio, and Mansfield, where the paper won the Associated Press General Excellence award after both his years as city editor.

He attended Case Western Reserve University and got his journalism degree from The Ohio State University, where he is a life member of the alumni club. Rowland has belonged to Investigative Reporters and Editors almost since its inception.

A native of Ashland County, he and his wife, who have four children and eight grandchildren, live in Westerville.