Benjamin Powell
Benjamin Powell is a multimedia journalist and digital media manager for The Dominion Post whose reporting blends deeply reported community features with strong visual storytelling, from food and festivals to local history, development and sports. In his food coverage, he treats dishes and venues as gateways into heritage and place, as in his feature on Eisgarten, a European-style ice cream shop that brings Old World traditions and a sense of nostalgia to Morgantown.
A scoop of nostalgia
Powell’s food writing focuses on how local businesses express memory, culture and neighborhood identity rather than on restaurant critique alone. In his Eisgarten feature, he frames the shop as a “scoop of nostalgia,” emphasizing its European ice cream tradition, its signature spaghetti eis and its playful claim to host what the owners describe as West Virginia’s only spaghetti eis and largest garden gnome. He builds service detail into that storytelling, noting the shop’s First Ward location beside a local park and its specific hours, so the piece functions both as a narrative profile and a practical guide for readers.
That approach carries into his wider feature work on attractions and events, where he highlights what makes an experience distinct and why people travel for it. His coverage of the Mothman Festival, for example, centers on the record-breaking crowds drawn to a small river town each September and the atmosphere that turns folklore into an annual economic and cultural moment.
Whether he is writing about dessert, festivals or development projects, the core is the same: he uses concrete sensory detail and human voices to show how local businesses and events shape a community’s flavor.
Pride Along the River
Powell frequently documents civic celebrations and gatherings, with an emphasis on visibility, belonging and who gets to be seen at the center of local life.
In “Pride Along the River: Morgantown celebrates community, visibility and belonging,” he treats a Pride event as a story about community identity and inclusion, foregrounding how residents use public space to express themselves and support one another. The headline language points to his framing: he is less interested in parade logistics than in what that visibility means for the people who show up.
His community features often sit at the intersection of culture and public institutions. In his piece on West Virginia University Libraries honoring NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, he uses a commemorative event to connect a local institution to a globally significant figure in science and civil rights.
These stories show a reporter who uses ceremonies, festivals and public programs to explore how a community tells its own story, and who it chooses to honor.
Small town, strong spirit
Powell also devotes significant attention to small-town life, especially where community identity overlaps with high school sports and seasonal traditions.
In “Small town, strong spirit: Blacksville lights the season,” he captures how a town’s holiday lights and football culture feed into a shared sense of pride and togetherness. His coverage of Clay-Battelle football and related stories, such as a Clay-Battelle senior signing to play at Glenville State, treats local athletes as community figures whose milestones matter beyond the scoreboard.
Sports coverage for Powell is as visual as it is narrative. He produces photo galleries from key games, including playoff matchups like Morgantown Mohigans vs. Buckhannon-Upshur, giving readers a frame-by-frame sense of momentum and emotion. His sports photographs often run alongside game stories and columns, extending his role beyond text into visual documentation of the region’s athletic life. That same eye for moments – a decisive play, a celebratory huddle, a tense sideline – informs his food and feature work, where he looks for images that capture atmosphere as clearly as words.
Then and now
Historical context is another thread that marks Powell’s reporting, particularly in education and commemorative coverage.
In a feature on University High School’s 100th year, he uses the frame of “Then and now” to bring a century of school history alive at a contemporary parade, blending archival material with present-day scenes. For a special America 250 edition, he writes and photographs a story that draws directly from archival collections preserved at a university, again pairing images and research to connect readers with the past.
Powell’s work on development and business fits the same pattern of grounding present change in a longer narrative. In “Blue Gold Development builds foundations for growth,” he profiles a local development effort not just as a construction project but as part of a broader story about economic foundations and future opportunities.
Across these assignments – from ice cream parlors and festivals to libraries, ballparks and building sites – he operates as a multimedia journalist and digital media manager who uses award-winning photojournalism and accessible feature writing to document how a community grows, celebrates and remembers.
4 more food journalists.
Aaron Guerrero
Aaron Guerrero is head of the digital department at Miami’s Community Newspapers, where he pairs restaurant coverage with community-facing content. He focuses on how Miami-area restaurants evolve, celebrate, and experiment through new concepts, menus, and neighborhood-focused dining experiences. He reports on restaurant openings, such as an Italian food hall at Plaza Coral Gables, new executive lunch menus, and wood-fired Latin steakhouse brunches, explaining what sets each venue apart. He also covers awards, like a Wine Spectator honor for an Italian chophouse, and events that turn dining rooms into social hubs. His bylines extend to features on sports-themed gatherings, civic renamings, local visits to restaurant programs, sponsored community pieces, and official notices. His work is straightforward and descriptive, helping readers and local businesses connect around specific openings, promotions, and dining experiences.
Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming reports on how courts, jails and public safety systems work over time. He is a reporter at The Daily Memphian covering public safety, the local court system, suburban news and business developments in North Mississippi. His work follows trials, sentencing, appeals, plea deals and judicial decisions, including major cases tied to Tyre Nichols and rapper Young Dolph. He also covers jail conditions, inmate deaths, crime data, prosecution units, trafficking, shootings and public-order incidents. His suburban reporting examines cannabis businesses, restaurant openings and how commercial growth affects communities such as Olive Branch. Fleming previously covered education in the same newsroom. He uses clear, unadorned prose to explain legal steps, deadlines, institutional problems and the political, commercial and community effects of public-safety decisions.
Alana Al-Hatlani
Alana Al-Hatlani is a food writer and editor who treats recipes, restaurants, and food features as ways to explore culture, community, and the business of eating. She works on the food team at Southern Living, overseeing and contributing to print recipes and reported features. Her pastry-focused, restaurant-tested perspective comes from time in restaurant and bakery kitchens. She helps plan and write monthly food packages, including “The South’s Most Treasured Desserts,” and wrote “8 Summer Recipes Our Editors Make Every Year.” She also writes recipe tips, ingredient explainers, restaurant guides, and reported stories about workers, owners, and communities. Her subjects include regional specialties, dining scenes, kitchen basics, and food industries. Her work has appeared with OpenTable and Yahoo. She reports on the ground, explains techniques clearly, and connects specific dishes and places to larger stories about food and livelihood.
Alana Edgin
Alana Edgin is a business reporter whose strongest focus is food, restaurants and consumer-facing businesses. She works at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and has also had work syndicated across AOL and Yahoo News. She covers new openings, closings, expansions and franchise growth, along with retail, health, services, corporate news, data incidents, business support programs and sponsorships. Her reporting includes detailed roundups of new restaurants and businesses, coverage of El Pollo Loco’s opening, and stories on burger trucks, dessert shops, Vietnamese sandwich restaurants and gourmet markets. She also contributes to food and drink reviews, including fall coffee and jerky comparisons. Edgin reports with practical “what, when, where” details, structured comparisons and clear explanations of how offers, partnerships and business changes affect consumers and the local economy.