Welcome to In The Spotlight

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This month emmaheaven.com is shining the spotlight on...

Anna Riley

I am a reporter for Hull Live and the Hull Daily Mail.

My role involves covering breaking news stories through live blogging, as well as finding exclusives and turning my hand to news, features, inquests, court cases and press conferences.

I am one of the top authors at Hull Live, after becoming the first in the team to hit more than two-million page views in March 2020, with my audience figures consistently reaching well in excess of one-million views per month.

Hull Live is part of Reach plc, the largest commercial national and regional news publisher in the UK.

With this, many of my stories have been used in other national publications such as the Mirror and Daily Express and regional titles in the group, as well as being syndicated to other publications such as the Daily Mail and the Sun.

During the coronavirus pandemic, I was chosen to ask challenging questions to the Government as part of the daily coronavirus briefing broadcast on Sky and BBC, and appeared on national radio LBC afterwards as a result.

I also questioned Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he visited a Siemens train factory under construction in Goole, asking him about how he would be helping people in Hull and East Yorkshire who have been adversely affected by the pandemic.

On a daily basis, I interview members of the community on a variety of topics that matter to them and our readers, and I have built great relationships with my contacts from all walks of life.

I also write many features, which go above and beyond what is expected of a reporter, and are aimed at informing and entertaining, such as:

• my boyfriend moving in with me for lockdown
• living off food bank provisions
• trying to pass my driving test again
• dating on Bumble and Tinder
• what it’s like to be trolled online every day for just doing my job

The first person opinion pieces I’m particularly proud of - they have come from my own ideas and generated much interest amongst our readers.

Other wide-ranging topics I’ve covered are food, drink and travel reviews, and running campaigns, including a bid to raise £25k for Hull’s NHS hospitals through a variety of stories in an effort to give the staff in our region a boost following the coronavirus pandemic.

Besides the written word, I also report live on Facebook. Before starting at Hull Live, I worked as the editor, reporter and presenter at ‘That’s TV York’, a local news outlet.

I helped to launch the TV Freeview channel 8 station, working as station editor, responsible for the content and running of the newsroom and production of the show, alongside reporting and presenting. I presented the show which went out at 6pm every weekday evening.

To achieve the end product, behind the scenes I also researched, planned and filmed/self-shot video interviews, and edited and packaged up my own local news stories.

Training interns, recruiting staff and managing our social media also featured in that multi-faceted role.

It was my first journalism job which I started whilst still writing my masters dissertation at Leeds Trinity University. The following year I went back for their ‘Journalism Week’, to give a talk on what my job in television was like.

Overall, I feel honoured to work as a journalist, telling people’s stories and holding those in power to account.

My author page is at HullDailyMail.co.uk/authors/Anna-Riley

Twitter: Twitter.com/AnnaRileyNews