Ryan Kneller
Ryan Kneller tracks the shifting landscape of local food and consumer businesses, showing how new restaurants, breweries and shops take root across WFMZ‑TV’s 69News coverage area. He is a journalist with 69News who focuses on food and beverages, hospitality and leisure, and retail, with a strong emphasis on regional stories. His reporting centers on openings, expansions and milestones for family-run eateries, cafes, breweries and other customer-facing businesses.
Restaurant openings and family-run expansions
Kneller’s food coverage is anchored in the day-to-day growth of local restaurants, particularly family-run operations that are adding new locations.
In one piece, he follows a family-run Mexican restaurant as it opens a second location in the Lehigh Valley, capturing both the expansion and the excitement inside the dining room. He highlights the practical details that matter to diners - where the new location is, what kind of food is served, and how the experience compares to the original - while keeping owners’ voices and customer reactions central to the story. This emphasis on family ownership and incremental growth gives his work a strong small-business lens rather than a generic restaurant-review angle.
Food and drink businesses across the community
Beyond restaurants, Kneller regularly covers food and drink businesses such as cafes, catering companies and breweries.
Local operators credit both him and 69News for their “continued interest” in a cafe and catering company, underscoring that his coverage returns to standout businesses over time rather than treating them as one-off stories. His work on brewery news for 69News has been cited in trade industry roundups, showing that his local reporting on new brewery locations and developments resonates beyond the immediate market.
This mix of cafes, catering firms and breweries positions him as a go-to reporter for stories about how food and drink entrepreneurs are building their presence and customer base.
Retail and banking developments tied to consumer life
Although food is a core focus, Kneller also reports on broader retail and financial developments that shape local consumer life. His coverage includes a story on a regional bank opening a new branch in a former Bank of America building in Bethlehem, linking changes in the retail banking landscape to the everyday experience of residents who rely on in-person services. This kind of piece reflects his wider brief on customer-facing businesses, where banks, shops and service providers sit alongside restaurants and cafes as part of a single, coherent beat.
He tends to situate these developments within the station’s core market, which includes the Lehigh Valley and Berks County, ensuring that openings and closures are framed in terms of local impact.
Regional focus and service-oriented reporting style
Kneller’s stories consistently focus on regional businesses rather than national chains or abstract industry trends.
His specialization in food and beverages, hospitality and leisure, and retail is paired with a geographic focus on the community 69News serves, making his coverage highly relevant to local audiences deciding where to eat, shop or bank. He writes in a straightforward, service-oriented style, giving readers clear information on new locations, hours, offerings and ownership, while weaving in quotes that capture the enthusiasm of business owners and patrons.
Across food, drink, retail and banking, the through-line is his attention to how local businesses grow, adapt and connect with customers in the region.
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.