Hull Live

What Hull Live does

Hull Live is the digital publishing brand of the Hull Daily Mail, a regional newspaper established in 1885 and operated by Reach plc, a publicly traded UK media company listed on the London Stock Exchange. The platform serves Hull and East Yorkshire residents with comprehensive local coverage spanning news, crime, courts, politics, traffic and travel, property, nostalgia, sport (Hull City football, Hull FC and Hull KR rugby league), what's on listings, food and drink, family, music, and shopping. Sub-regional pages extend coverage to Beverley, Bridlington, Goole, and Holderness, supporting a deliberately geographic segmentation strategy across Yorkshire and the Humber.

The core product is the Hull Live website at hulldailymail.co.uk, a mobile-optimized digital news platform. Distribution is multi-channel: Facebook, X, Instagram, RSS feeds, a free email newsletter preference center for segmented topic updates, and a WhatsApp breaking news group. Hull Live has also integrated with Google's Preferred Sources program to surface in Google News and Discover. The associated Hull Daily Mail print edition provides physical newspaper delivery through the Reachsubs subscription service. The business model is consumer-facing with free content monetized through digital advertising, print and digital subscriptions, and adjacent local services including Reach Photo Sales, Book an Ad, TotallyLegal jobs marketplace, and funeral notices.

Revenue is not disclosed at the brand level; the publication is one operating unit within Reach plc's larger regional media group, benefiting from shared technology infrastructure, sales operations, and cross-brand content syndication. The parent-company scale provides an efficient operating base, while the brand's 140-year local heritage and multi-channel digital presence represent the core competitive position. There are no disclosed AI/ML capabilities, no funding rounds at the brand level, and no major acquisitions, divestitures, or leadership changes specific to Hull Live in the source data.

Name

Hull Live

Legal name

Hull Daily Mail (operated by Reach plc)

Website

https://hulldailymail.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1885

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Hull Live is a regional digital news brand operated by Reach plc, delivering local news, sport, and community coverage to Hull and East Yorkshire residents through a website, social media, newsletters, and a print newspaper.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Kingston upon Hull

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Hull Live is a digital local news platform serving Hull, East Yorkshire, and the surrounding region, delivering daily news, sport (Hull City football, Hull FC and Hull KR rugby league), what's on listings, traffic and travel, property, business, and community content through its website, social media channels, newsletters, RSS feeds, and WhatsApp alerts. It also operates the Hull Daily Mail print newspaper subscription product, distributing physical copies via Reachsubs, and monetizes audience attention through advertising.

Product overview

Hull Live is a digital local news platform operated by Reach plc, delivering comprehensive coverage of Hull and East Yorkshire through its core Hull Live Website product. The platform operates a unified digital news service supplemented by add-on modules including free email newsletters, RSS feeds, and WhatsApp news alerts for breaking stories. The platform also maintains integration with Google News as a preferred source partner, enhancing content discovery. The associated Hull Daily Mail print edition provides physical newspaper coverage, completing a multi-channel local journalism offering.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Hull Live Website

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• GooglecoreGTM or Marketing PartnerHull Live has partnered with Google through the Preferred Sources program, allowing readers to add Hull Live as their preferred source in Google News. This increases Hull Live's visibility in Google Search results and Google Discover, driving organic traffic and expanding reach to readers who may not directly visit the Hull Live website.

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Manchester Evening News: Sister regional news brand within Reach plc covering Greater Manchester; same business model, tech stack, and audience-development playbook, making it the most directly comparable peer.
• YorkshireLive: Reach plc digital brand extending across the broader Yorkshire region; shares sports, traffic, and community verticals with Hull Live and competes for overlapping audience and search traffic.
• The Northern Echo: Newsquest-published regional daily serving the North East with a comparable local-news and sport proposition and a print-to-digital transition history paralleling Hull Daily Mail.
• Yorkshire Post: Long-standing Yorkshire regional daily, now under National World, covering overlapping East Yorkshire readership with comparable local-news and sport verticals.
• Birmingham Live: Another Reach plc sister brand serving the West Midlands with a near-identical digital newsroom, newsletter suite, and Google Preferred Sources integration, providing a direct like-for-like benchmark.
• Sheffield Star: Reach plc sister title covering South Yorkshire with strong local sports (Sheffield United, Wednesday) vertical, comparable in size, audience composition, and editorial scope to Hull Live.
• The Yorkshire Evening Post: Reach plc sibling brand covering Leeds and West Yorkshire; same parent, similar editorial mix, and complementary geographic coverage with overlapping sports and lifestyle content.
• Derby Live / Derbyshire Live: Yet another Reach plc regional title operating on the same publishing platform, providing an additional same-network peer for benchmarking audience and ad performance.

Broad incumbents

• National World: Holding company for a portfolio of UK regional titles including Yorkshire Post; a direct competitor within the same regional-news ad and subscription market that limits Hull Live's growth ceiling.
• BBC Look North (Hull & East Yorkshire): Public-service broadcaster covering the same Hull and East Yorkshire geography; not a paid subscription service but the dominant local-news competitor for audience attention and ad-share avoidance behavior.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hulllive
• Facebookfacebook.com/hulllive
• Instagraminstagram.com/hulllive
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hull-daily-mail

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hull Live