Anna Lawlor

Anna Lawlor is a national journalist, broadcaster and communications consultant. She co-founded Luminescence with Anna Marsden in 2012, leading the Content Marketing side of the business.

As a ploymath, Anna enjoys a portfolio career.

She now consults for Luminescence as a subject matter expert for specific Learning and Development programs.

Expertise

Her subject matter exertise includes:

• Media Relations
• Media Interviews
• Pitching to Journalists
• PR / Media Crisis
• Social Media Crisis
• Professional Writing
• Content Strategy
• Content Marketing / Brand Journalism

For Luminescence, she created content marketing campaigns and produced editorial for brands including:

• Accenture
• Android
• Barclays
• BMW
• Microsoft
• PwC
• Saxo Capital Markets
• Social Media Week.

Anna Lawlor relishes bringing ideas to life and ‘cutting through’ to reach and resonate with a specific audience. Her guiding principle is:

It’s never about ‘us’, it is first, last and always about ‘them’; the buyer, the prospect, the reader.

If it doesn’t further the discussion, it’s not worth saying. 

During her time at Luminescence, Anna Lawlor was Commissioning Editor of The Guardian‘s social media marketing series (2014). She also co-hosted the Social Media Show Podcast with Anna Marsden.

Background

Prior to co-founding Luminescence, Anna Lawlor was a Financial Times Editor, specialising in the investment and asset management sector.

Anna has written for the majority of UK national newspapers, with staff positions at The Sunday Times (Foreign Desk during 2003 Iraq war) and The Financial Times (an investment editor during the 2007 financial crisis).

From 2015-19 she was Editorial Director of The Financial Times’s Philanthropy & Impact Investing report.

Her first radio documentary – Typical! – for BBC Radio 4, was shortlisted for Data Journalism of the Year 2022 at Wincott Awards and was Highly Commended by the Royal Statistical Society’s Awards for Statistical Excellence in Journalism.

In 2023, she was awarded Best Broadcast Journalist by Women In Journalism and the Freelance Journalism Awards.

Anna holds a BSc in International Relations, achieved via distance learning with The Open University.

Passions

Anna is a creative storyteller; she always has a factual broadcast pitch under development as well as a screenwriting or playwriting project. She has completed training with ScreenSkills, Audible and the National Film & TV School (NFTS).

Outside work Anna Lawlor can be found swilling good wine or coffee with her nose in a book. She is a Trustee at the Cambridge Literary Festival and an event chair for book/ideas festivals.

Anna is an avid snowboarder, having previously competed at the British Snowboard Championships alongside Olympians Jenny Jones and Zoe Gillings-Brier.

Find out about Anna Marsden, Founder, Head of Training & Digital.