Parker King
Parker King is a morning anchor at Action News 5 who uses his news platform to spotlight food, barbecue culture, and the people behind local flavors, alongside broader community feature reporting. His coverage on the food beat focuses on competition barbecue and specialty products, tying them to personal journeys and social buzz rather than just events or trends. He also contributes longer-form Impact Team stories that follow milestones in local schools and communities, giving his food coverage a wider context of place and people.
Barbecue and competition cooking
King’s food reporting is centered on the world of competition barbecue and the personalities who define it. In his coverage of pitmaster Heath Riles, he traces back-to-back World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest titles and frames them through Riles’ broader barbecue journey, emphasizing both the achievement and the path that led there.[user] By putting the pitmaster’s story at the center of a major contest, he turns a results-driven event into a narrative about craft, persistence, and identity in barbecue.
His work around the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest sits within a landscape where new categories, such as an “open fire” division drawing teams from multiple countries, are reshaping what competitive barbecue looks like. King’s emphasis on individual champions within that evolving contest structure makes his food coverage distinct: instead of only cataloguing winners and categories, he uses the contest as a backdrop for personal stories that help a general audience understand why these titles matter.
Local food makers and products
Beyond large contests, King features smaller-scale food makers whose products are gaining attention through word of mouth and social media. In an Action News 5 segment with fellow anchor Deja Brown, he introduces Nick Ray and his pepper jelly, highlighting that the product is visible “on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all the things” and underlining its appeal with the simple verdict, “So good.” The segment shows his preference for presenting food stories through direct, conversational encounters with makers rather than abstract descriptions of trends.
King’s approach in these pieces is to connect a specific product to the broader ecosystem of online attention and local enthusiasm. By foregrounding that a jar of pepper jelly has become a cross-platform presence, he signals that his food beat includes not just traditional restaurant or chef coverage but also niche products and entrepreneurs who are building followings in newer ways.
For sources, this means his food coverage is a fit for stories that combine flavor, personality, and a clear hook in the digital or social sphere.
Rise on 5 and the morning news format
King’s food and feature reporting is anchored within his primary role as a morning anchor at Action News 5. Promos for the “Rise on 5” newscast describe him bringing viewers “the headlines” and directing them to watch live for the latest news and updates, underscoring that his day-to-day work involves guiding audiences through breaking stories as well as planned segments. A station announcement celebrating that he is “BACK reporting on the anchor desk” reinforces his identity as a core on-air presence.
Operating from the anchor desk shapes how he handles food content: rather than standalone long-form documentaries, his pieces are integrated into a fast-moving broadcast where they need a clear top line and strong visual or human elements. The barbecue and pepper jelly segments reflect this format, with titles and captions that immediately foreground the subject, the win, or the product, making them suitable for viewers who encounter the story quickly on television or social platforms.[user] This combination of anchor responsibilities and food coverage distinguishes him from reporters whose work appears only in written or digital features.
Impact Team storytelling beyond food
King extends his reporting beyond food through work with Action News 5’s Impact Team, which focuses on stories with long-term significance for local communities. In one Impact Team piece, he documents how a graduating senior class is poised to make history, presenting it as “a moment more than 100 years in the making.” That framing shows his tendency to situate individual milestones within larger timelines, giving viewers a sense of historical weight alongside present-day detail.
He also takes on longer-form stories for the station’s 6 p.m. newscast, including a report in which “Parker King has the full story” around 17-year-old Saturah Hays, signaling that he covers youth-centered narratives and not only lighter features. Seen together with his food coverage, these Impact Team and evening pieces suggest a reporter who is comfortable moving between barbecue champions, specialty products, and education or youth stories, while keeping the focus on the people at the center of each.
For organizations, that mix makes him a match for pitches that link food, community, and lived experience in a way that can carry both in a headline and in a short, on-air segment.[user]
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.