Iris Dorbian is an experienced and skilled business journalist whose specialty beats have included marketing/advertising, media, small business, finance, private equity/venture capital, legal cannabis industry and theater/the arts.
Currently, Iris is writing articles and content for PEI Group - PE Hub and Buyouts and also contributes to sister publication Venture Capital Journal.
Iris is a pioneer cannabis journalist who began covering the space when there were only two legal markets in 2014. From 2018 to 2025, she covered the business of the legal cannabis industry for Forbes.com.
She also wrote a series of freelance theater-related articles for Insider after the 18-month Broadway shutdown caused by the pandemic. She recently wrote a personal essay for Business Insider chronicling how for 72 hours her identity had been stolen for an article which she never wrote and which she blamed AI as being behind the digital thievery.
For several years, Iris regularly wrote B2B articles for Bank of America’s Small Business site, which targeted small biz entrepreneurs.
Earlier, Iris was group editor of the PR/media group at Access Intelligence where she worked on digital content and live events for PR News, Media Industry Newsletter and Min’s b2b. For Min and Min’s b2b, she authored a regular Eye on Advertising column that tracked and discussed marketing/advertising patterns in the consumer and trade magazine sectors.
From 1999 to 2007, she was the editor-in-chief of Stage Directions, a national technical theater trade publication.
She is also a busy and prolific freelance journalist. Her articles have appeared in a wide number of publications that include Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters, Crain's New York Business, Business Insider, Playbill, Mediapost, CFO.com, Investopedia, Lifestyles Magazine, Live Design, DMNews, Backstage, Theatermania, Jerusalem Report, the Forward, Pilates Style, Natural Living Today, Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher and Pointe.
Iris served on the adjunct faculty at William Paterson University where she taught journalism to undergrads and professional writing and communication to graduate students.
She is the author of “Great Producers: Visionaries of the American Theater,” published by Allworth Press in August 2008; "Sentenced to Shakespeare," published by Milford House Press (an imprint of Sunbury Press) in July 2019; "Next Stop, Boston," published by Black Pawn Press in October 2023; and "An Epiphany in Lilacs" (third ed, Sunbury Press/Milford House Press, July 2025).
"Next Stop, Boston" is a 2024 Firebird Book Award Winner in the coming of age category, a Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner: Fiction, a Spring 2024 Readers' Choice Book Award Finalist in the best adult book category and a 2024 Storytrade Book Awards finalist in the contemporary fiction category.
"An Epiphany in Lilacs" is a 2025 Firebird Book Award Winner in the Holocaust and friendship categories and a five-star 2025 Readers' Choice Book Award recipient in the adult fiction category.
A Garden State native, Iris has a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She also has a BA in history from NYU.
