An international award has been presented to a news start up founded by two former regional press colleagues.

Urbs Media, a news agency specialising in data journalism, has been honoured with the Startups for News Award by the Global Editors Network.

Founders Gary Rogers and Alan Renwick will now present their plans to the gathering of senior journalists in Vienna at the network’s in June.

The business was formed in 2015 by Alan and Gary, both of whom started their careers at Thomson Regional Newspapers, and has offices in Bristol and London.

Gary went on to edit both the BBC 1 Six o’clock News and Channel 5 news, while Alan held a series of senior positions at Mirror Group, TES, Northcliffe and Local World.

Alan, pictured above left, said: “It’s a great accolade to be spotted by the Global Editors Network, and we’re delighted to have won our pitch thanks to the GEN jury and a public vote.

“We are working hard to develop a service that provides newsrooms with a great daily diet of important stories across key beats such as health, crime, transport and education.

“This opportunity will help us link up with local media groups around the world, and we have already identified 20 target markets.”