Reach PLC’s Yorkshire Live is launching a new ‘public awareness team’ and dedicated sports app.

Roles will be created for a court reporter, Yorkshire insight reporter and Yorkshire investigations reporter to work in the public awareness team and will be advertised later this week.

They will be joined by Stephanie Finnegan, Yorkshire Live’s Leeds Crown Court reporter, and Alex Rodgers, who recently joined from Hull Live as parliamentary correspondent.

Yorkshire Live will also be launching a Yorkshire Trending channel on the site, focusing on stories and information which people are searching for and talking about in real-time.

Two trending journalists are being hired for that team, with a brief to ‘help keep Yorkshire up to date in real time’.

Yorkshire Live will also be launching a sports app dedicated to football and rugby league across the region. An app engagement editor is being recruited, as well as a new Leeds United reporter to join Leeds United editor Joe Mewis and reporter Beren Cross.

Wayne Ankers, editor of Yorkshire Live, said: “Yorkshire Live reflects all aspects of life and that’s shown by our growth in such a short time. It’s about our audience, not about us.

“We have been delighted that it has taken less than six months to attract the largest digital audience in Yorkshire.

“We have done that with a Yorkshire mix of hard work, grit and determination from our brilliant team and a variety of news, entertainment and sports content that is never boring.”

David Higgerson, chief audience officer at Reach, added: “Our growing team in Yorkshire have done a brilliant job in taking our brand of journalism, blending the important with the popular, and making it an essential part of daily life for people right across Yorkshire.

“We believe the future of local journalism involves listening to readers as much as it does telling readers what the news is, and our public interest news team will help us take that approach to an area of content which deserves the widest possible audience.”