PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Matt O'Brien, an award-winning journalist with a track record of breaking news and using records to hold big business and public institutions accountable, is joining The Associated Press as state government reporter in Rhode Island.
The appointment was announced Monday by Karen Testa, the AP’s east regional editor, and William J. Kole, New England news editor.
O’Brien, 35, most recently has worked as a business and technology reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, where he distinguished himself on the competitive Google beat.
O’Brien previously was a reporter for the Oakland Tribune, where his accountability work included helping expose lax state oversight in the licensing of a disgraced senior care facility. He also covered immigration issues for the Tribune and the Contra Costa Times, winning awards for stories about child migrants from Central America and refugees from Bhutan.
“Matt is a relentless and thorough reporter with a knack for cultivating sources, mining data and telling the stories that really need to be told,” Kole said.
O’Brien, who worked in Massachusetts for The Sun of Lowell and the Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg earlier in his career, has a degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University. He begins in Providence on Dec. 7.
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