A journalist is set to take on newsdesk responsibilities after being promoted to chief reporter at a regional news website.

Ellis Whitehouse has been moved to the role at Essex Live, having served as the Reach plc-owned site’s South Essex reporter for the past 14 months.

He previously spent five years with Newsquest’s South Essex daily The Echo.

Ellis, pictured, announced his promotion in a series of Twitter posts.

He wrote: “Delighted to say I’m going to be stepping up to be Essex Live’s chief reporter, mixing up my usual dashing around court press benches and crime scenes with editing and supporting the rest of the team with the wealth of news in Essex.

“I’ve been with Essex Live for 14 months and truly feel at home here with a brilliant team in one of the best news patches in the country.

“Really excited to take on some more responsibility and very grateful to our brilliant editor Katrina Chilver for giving me this chance.”

Speaking to HTFP, he said: “To be given this opportunity to step up and take on more responsibility for our reporting team after just over a year with Essex Live is a genuine honour.

“I’ve felt so at home with the company since September 2021 and I can’t wait to further my work in a chief role leading such a skilled and friendly team of journalists.

“Thank you to all my managers and colleagues at Reach for having so much belief in me.”

Katrina added: “We’re really keen to give our team career progression and I’m so pleased to see Ellis taking this step up.

“Ellis has worked on some incredibly important stories during his time working in Essex and he will continue and build on that with this role.”