Sunderland Echo
Encyclopedia
The Sunderland Echo is an evening newspaper
serving the Sunderland
, South Tyneside
and East Durham
areas of North East England
. The newspaper was founded by Samuel Storey
, Edward Backhouse
, Edward Temperley Gourley
, Charles Palmer, Richard Ruddock
, Thomas Glaholm
and Thomas Scott Turnbull
in 1873, as the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. Designed to provide a platform for the Radical
views held by Storey and his partners, it was also Sunderland's first local daily paper.
The inaugural edition of the Echo was printed in Press Lane, Sunderland on 22 December 1873; 1,000 copies were produced and sold for a halfpenny each. The Echo survived intense competition in its early years, as well as the depression
of the 1930s and two World Wars. Sunderland was heavily bombed in the Second World War
and, although the Echo building was undamaged, it was forced to print its competitor's paper under wartime rules. It was during this time that the paper's format changed, from a broadsheet
to its current tabloid layout, because of national newsprint
shortages.
The Echo is published Monday–Saturday at Echo House, Pennywell
Industrial Estate, Sunderland by Northeast Press and is part of the Johnston Press
group—one of the United Kingdom's largest publishers of local and regional newspapers. As of December 2010, the paper had an average daily circulation
of 34,170, with around 87,000 readers, and a very active website. It retails at 48 pence
.
Reader profile statistics suggest that 47% of Echo readers are male, and 53% are female. The highest proportion of readers, 29%, are between the ages of 15 and 24. The second highest proportion, at 26%, are aged over 65 and the lowest, at 13%, are in the 45–54 age group. Independent research carried out for the Echo in 2000 found readers spent an average of 33 minutes reading the paper. The same survey showed the Echo appealed to people across the range of demographics
, with between 44 and 50% of people in each socio-economic
grouping being regular readers.
The Sunderland Echo covers a circulation area of 40 square miles (103.6 km²) in North East England, which includes parts of South Tyneside
and County Durham
, as well as the city of Sunderland. Whitburn
, Marsden
and The Boldons
, all to the north of Sunderland, are among the South Tyneside communities covered. Peterlee
, Horden
, Seaham
, Dawdon
, Murton
and Seaton
, to the south of Sunderland, are the main towns and villages in the East Durham circulation area. The paper is also sold in Washington
, Burnmoor
and Durham
, which are to the west of Sunderland. Villages on the outskirts of the city, including Houghton-le-Spring
, Penshaw
, Fencehouses
, Ryhope
and Hetton-le-Hole
are included in the circulation area too. The main newspaper rivals in the Sunderland and County Durham area include The Northern Echo
, The Journal
, the Hartlepool Mail
and the Evening Chronicle
. The Sunderland Star, a free weekly newspaper printed by the Echo, is also distributed in the city. According to independent research conducted on behalf of the Echo in 2000, the "popularity of the Echo in Sunderland and East Durham is greater than that of all other regional newspapers put together".
In addition to the main newspaper, the Echo also produces a number of regular supplements and articles of specialist interest each week. These include sport and business supplements each Monday, a Down Your Way local news
supplement on Tuesdays, jobs, junior football and nostalgia features on Wednesdays, an entertainment supplement, cars guide and nostalgia stories on Thursdays and a property pull-out on Fridays. The Saturday edition includes a leisure pull-out, featuring fashion, entertainment and restaurant reviews, while a local history nostalgia supplement, Retro, is published once a fortnight on Mondays. Two nostalgia calendars, featuring old photographs of Sunderland and Seaham, are also produced each year.
Samuel Storey, a former teacher and future Sunderland mayor and Member of Parliament
, founded the paper to provide a platform for his political views and to fill a gap in the newspaper market. Although the 100,000-strong population of Sunderland was already served by two weekly newspapers—The Sunderland Times and The Sunderland Herald—neither reflected the radical views held by Storey and his partners and there were no daily papers in the town. Storey promised readers in the first edition that, if things went wrong, "the Echo would try its best to put them right". But he added: "Always with moderation and without esteeming all those who oppose us as fools and knaves." Early copies of the Echo included lengthy reports of Liberal
meetings, and critical articles on Liberal opponents.
The Sunderland Echo was launched with an initial investment of £3,500, raised by donations of £500 each from Storey and his business partners. Those joining the venture were Quaker
banker Edward Backhouse, shipbroker
and MP Edward Temperley Gourley, shipbuilder and MP Sir Charles Palmer, newspaper editor Richard Ruddock, rope-maker Thomas Glaholm and draper Thomas Scott Turnbull. Lack of experience—only Ruddock had previous knowledge of newspaper management—and over-optimistic estimates of costs meant that the initial funds were quickly exhausted. Storey later admitted: "In our childlike, simple ways, we thought this might be sufficient, but in a few months all the money was gone, so we paid in another £3,500 and that soon went too." As the prospect of any great financial success receded, Ruddock, Gourley and Palmer withdrew from the project. Storey, however, remained dedicated to the idea, and took on their shares. A further £7,000 in investment from Storey enabled the remaining partners to abandon the "wheezing flat-bed press" and, in July 1876, the Echo moved to new premises at 14 Bridge Street, Sunderland.
supporters started a paper of their own, the Sunderland Daily Post. The Sunderland Times was the first to collapse, but the Post survived for the next quarter of a century, providing the Echo with an often bitter rival.
Following the deaths of two further partners, Backhouse in 1879 and Turnbull in 1880, Storey bought their shares to become the Echos chief proprietor. A year later, in 1881, he met Scottish-born millionaire Andrew Carnegie
, and formed a syndicate
with him to set up new newspapers and buy up others. Among those purchased were the Wolverhampton
Express and Star, the Northern Daily Mail in Hartlepool
and the Portsmouth
Evening News. An attempt to buy the Shields Gazette
, the country's oldest daily newspaper, failed. The syndicate finally broke up in 1885, with Storey retaining control of the Echo, Hampshire
Telegraph, Portsmouth News and the Northern Daily Mail. These papers formed the basis of a new company, Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd, formed in the 1930s. The 19th century ended with the rivalry between the Echo and the Sunderland Daily Post intensifying. The Silksworth
Colliery strike of 1891 pitted the two papers against each other, with the Post attacking Storey for having exploited the strike for political gain. Storey successfully sued for libel.
lead-setting machines were brought in to set type mechanically. A landslide victory for the Liberal Party followed at the 1906 General Election
, which heralded a new era for the Echo. The paper's old rival, the Sunderland Daily Post, was discontinued six months later, and the Football Echo was launched on 7 September 1907.
World War I
brought its own difficulties for the Echo. Reporters went off to battle and, after the cost of newsprint
soared, the paper was forced to double in price to a penny
. The Echos 50th anniversary in 1923 was marked by a visit from company chairman Samuel Storey. Storey died two years later, three months after his eldest son Fred, and the chairmanship passed to another Samuel—Fred's elder son. In the same year, plans were laid to improve the Bridge Street premises. The work included enlarging the printing works and was completed by the end of the 1920s.
of the 1930s brought mass unemployment
to Sunderland. But, for the Echo, it was also a time of important structural changes in ownership. A new company controlling the three titles owned by the Storey family was formed in 1934—Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd. There was a change in name for the Echo too, when the word Daily was dropped from its title of Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. The decade also, however, brought a fire which destroyed most of the bound files of archive copies of the Echo. Nineteenth-century editions of the Echo can only be accessed in Sunderland at the City Centre Library in Fawcett Street.
, with Sunderland one of the seven most heavily bombed towns in the country. Despite the heavy shelling of the North East coast and River Wear
, the Echo offices and printing plant escaped undamaged. The Shields Gazette, the Echo's nearest rival, was not as fortunate. Its premises in Chapter Row, South Shields
, were bombed in September 1941 and, under an emergency wartime arrangement, the paper was printed on the Echo presses. The Echo continued to be published throughout the war, despite paper rationing
, a lack of reporters and a strict censorship
of photographs. The war did have one major impact on the Echo—in the form of its size. Wartime restrictions on newsprint reduced the former broadsheet to its present tabloid size, and this style has been retained ever since.
Following a major refurbishment of the Bridge Street base in the mid-1960s, the next milestones for the paper came in 1973. The first was Sunderland A.F.C.
's 1–0 win over Leeds United
in the FA Cup Final. Ian Porterfield's winning goal was headline news at the time, giving the Echo its all-time record circulation figure of 95,000 copies of the Sports Echo. The second important event of 1973 was the 100th anniversary of the paper. Celebrations included a birthday party, with dignitaries such as Sunderland A.F.C. manager Bob Stokoe
among the guests. Lord Buckton
, the chairman of Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd, announced his retirement at the event, and was succeeded by his son, The Honourable
Richard Storey. News of a move from Bridge Street to Pennywell, Sunderland, was also announced during the anniversary celebrations. The old newspaper building has since been replaced by a modern apartment block. The Echo name still lives on, however, as the project as been named Echo24.
's appearance, with a new shape, bolder typefaces and clearer printing. The first new-look Echo was printed at Pennywell on 26 April 1976 and was issue number 32,512.
Another change inspired by the move was a return for the Football Echo man. The cartoon
character had for years indicated the match results of Sunderland with a smile, a frown or a tear, while adorning the outside wall of the Bridge Street building. After several years in storage, he was returned to the wall of the new Echo building in 1976, where he still remains today.
In 1985 there was a break in tradition when the Echo title-piece appeared reversed out in white on a red background, instead of the more familiar red or black lettering. The new title-piece was designed to give a greater impact to the colourful front page. It was the first in a series of changes which included dropping Sunderland from the title in 1990, the paper simply becoming The Echo. This change was reversed in 1997, with a return to the name Sunderland Echo.
news service was also launched in 1996. A further £5 million was spent on updating the pre-press and press hall area in 2004, to improve printing quality and speed of production.
The Echo was still part of Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers until the end of the 1990s, although printed by Northeast Press, a subsidiary of the main company. However, the last link to the original founder, Samuel Storey, disappeared in 1999, when Johnston Press took over the business in May that year. The Sunderland Echo is still published by Northeast Press, although Johnston Press—the nation's second largest regional publisher—now owns the whole company.
Statistics show that almost 80,000 people visited the Echos website in January 2007, and this figure had risen to 216,000 by January 2008. The website is updated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with stories including football match reports and football transfer rumours among the most popular. Slideshows, videos and podcast
s are also included on the site in addition to the news of the day.
audience and, although produced by staff based at Echo House in Sunderland, it is distributed across the North East, from Alnwick
in Northumberland
to Yarm
in North Yorkshire
, as well as by direct delivery. Aimed at people with 'a large disposable income,' etc magazine includes feaures on fashion, beauty, motoring, travel, property, food and wine, as well as celebrity interviews.
praise, for its campaigning journalism, specialist writing, community work, photographic images and appeals for good causes over the decades. Examples of notable writing include a 2006 campaign highlighting the threat posed by bogus callers to the elderly and a 2005 campaign to protect 999 crews from being attacked on duty, which both received official praise in Parliament
. A 1996 drug education campaign, which included the creation of a telephone service for tip-offs about suspected local drug dealers, was also highly praised. The Newspaper Society named the Echo as its Campaigning Newspaper of the Year for the Drug Busters drive, and the campaign also won an award from the International Newspaper Marketing Association.
In the 135 years of its existence, the Echo has become part of the culture of the North East of England and a replica branch office of the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette was built at the open air Beamish Museum
in County Durham in 1991. Designed to show visitors how the newspaper would have operated in around 1913, the life-size exhibit includes a distribution office, reporter's office, stationery shop and fully working printing press. The replica office took museum staff several months to research and create, and was opened by Sir Richard Storey, great-grandson of Echo founder Samuel Storey, on 10 May 1991.
A racehorse was named after the paper in 1991, which was owned by a consortium of 250 Echo readers. The gelding
won races at Hamilton
, Redcar
, Newcastle upon Tyne
and Haydock
in the early 1990s, but had to be put down on 17 February 1996 after pulling up badly lame during a routine morning gallop. The Echo was also used in a display at the Science Museum
in London in 1999, to show how writing can be made simpler for people with reading difficulties, and a specially printed edition of the newspaper appeared on the TV show Touching Evil
, starring Robson Green
, in the same year.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
serving the Sunderland
City of Sunderland
The City of Sunderland is a local government district of Tyne and Wear, in North East England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough...
, South Tyneside
South Tyneside
South Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear in North East England.It is bordered by four other boroughs - Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead to the west, Sunderland in the south, and North Tyneside to the north. The border county of Northumberland lies further north...
and East Durham
Easington (district)
Easington was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district in eastern County Durham, England. It contained the settlements of Easington, Seaham, Peterlee, Murton, Horden, Blackhall, Wingate and Castle Eden...
areas of North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
. The newspaper was founded by Samuel Storey
Samuel Storey
Samuel Storey was a British politician born in County Durham. He became a Member of Parliament for Sunderland and the main founder of the Sunderland Echo newspaper.-Early life:...
, Edward Backhouse
Edward Backhouse
Edward Backhouse was a philanthropist, Quaker minister and a writer on church history. He was also one of the founding fathers of the Sunderland Echo newspaper.-Early life:...
, Edward Temperley Gourley
Edward Temperley Gourley
Sir Edward Temperley Gourley, VD was a coal fitter, shipowner and politician born in Sunderland, England. He was knighted for his political work.-Early life:...
, Charles Palmer, Richard Ruddock
Richard Ruddock
Lancelot Nixon Richard Ruddock - known as Richard Ruddock - was a reporter, newspaper editor and a founder of the Sunderland Echo in the 19th century.-Early life:...
, Thomas Glaholm
Thomas Glaholm
Thomas Glaholm was the son of a Newcastle steam flour miller. He went on to open a successful rope manufacturing plant in Sunderland and was a founder member of a daily provincial newspaper, the Sunderland Echo.-Early life:...
and Thomas Scott Turnbull
Thomas Scott Turnbull
Thomas Scott Turnbull was the son of a Newcastle saddler. He went on to open one of the largest drapery houses in the North East of England, was a founder member of a daily provincial newspaper and served as Mayor of Sunderland.-Early life:Thomas Scott Turnbull, the son of saddler John Turnbull,...
in 1873, as the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. Designed to provide a platform for the Radical
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
views held by Storey and his partners, it was also Sunderland's first local daily paper.
The inaugural edition of the Echo was printed in Press Lane, Sunderland on 22 December 1873; 1,000 copies were produced and sold for a halfpenny each. The Echo survived intense competition in its early years, as well as the depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the 1930s and two World Wars. Sunderland was heavily bombed in the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and, although the Echo building was undamaged, it was forced to print its competitor's paper under wartime rules. It was during this time that the paper's format changed, from a broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
to its current tabloid layout, because of national newsprint
Newsprint
Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of...
shortages.
The Echo is published Monday–Saturday at Echo House, Pennywell
Pennywell
Pennywell is one of the UK's largest post-war social housing schemes, and is situated in the central-west area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England. Pennywell is the largest local authority housing estate in the City of Sunderland...
Industrial Estate, Sunderland by Northeast Press and is part of the Johnston Press
Johnston Press
Johnston Press plc is a newspaper publishing company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. Its flagship titles are The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post; it also operates many other newspapers around the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man. It is the second-largest publisher...
group—one of the United Kingdom's largest publishers of local and regional newspapers. As of December 2010, the paper had an average daily circulation
Newspaper circulation
A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. Circulation is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost to the...
of 34,170, with around 87,000 readers, and a very active website. It retails at 48 pence
British One Penny coin
The British decimal one penny coin, produced by the Royal Mint, was issued on 15 February 1971, the day the British currency was decimalised. In practice, it had been available from banks in bags of £1 for some weeks previously...
.
Facts and figures
The Sunderland Echo is an award-winning evening newspaper, published from Monday to Saturday each week at Echo House, Pennywell, Sunderland. The paper has a daily circulation of 34,170, with an overall readership of 86,918. The Echo website records over 1.5 million page impressions each month and has approximately 170,000 unique users. The news coverage provided by the Echo focuses mainly on local events, including human interest, crime and court stories, as well as reports on the local Premier League football team, Sunderland AFC. During the football season, the Echo also publishes a Football Echo edition each Saturday, providing a round-up of general sporting news and football fixture results.Reader profile statistics suggest that 47% of Echo readers are male, and 53% are female. The highest proportion of readers, 29%, are between the ages of 15 and 24. The second highest proportion, at 26%, are aged over 65 and the lowest, at 13%, are in the 45–54 age group. Independent research carried out for the Echo in 2000 found readers spent an average of 33 minutes reading the paper. The same survey showed the Echo appealed to people across the range of demographics
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
, with between 44 and 50% of people in each socio-economic
Socioeconomics
Socioeconomics or socio-economics or social economics is an umbrella term with different usages. 'Social economics' may refer broadly to the "use of economics in the study of society." More narrowly, contemporary practice considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social...
grouping being regular readers.
Circulation and supplements
| Circulation and price | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Price | Circulation |
| 1873 | 1 halfpenny | 1,000 |
| 1893 | 1 halfpenny | 21,967 |
| 1939 | 1 penny | 49,001 |
| 1953 | 3 halfpennies | 56,412 |
| 1976 | 6 pence | 65,145 |
| 1984 | 12 pence | 70,100 |
| 1990 | 18 pence | 68,525 |
| 1993 | 25 pence | 63,420 |
| 2008 | 42 pence | 44,198 |
The Sunderland Echo covers a circulation area of 40 square miles (103.6 km²) in North East England, which includes parts of South Tyneside
South Tyneside
South Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear in North East England.It is bordered by four other boroughs - Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead to the west, Sunderland in the south, and North Tyneside to the north. The border county of Northumberland lies further north...
and County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
, as well as the city of Sunderland. Whitburn
Whitburn, South Tyneside
Whitburn is a village in South Tyneside, on the coast of North East England. It lies just to the north of the City of Sunderland in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear. Until 1974, when the Local Government Act 1972 came into being, it was part of County Durham...
, Marsden
Marsden, Tyne and Wear
Marsden is a suburb in South Shields, North East England, located on the North Sea coast.The original village of Marsden, was demolished in the 1960s due to the risk of erosion from the encroaching shoreline. What remains are five rows of Victorian terraced houses, which were originally built to...
and The Boldons
The Boldons
The Boldons are a group of three small villages in the North East of England - East Boldon, West Boldon and Boldon Colliery - bordering the north of Sunderland and the south of South Shields and Jarrow. They have a population of 13,271....
, all to the north of Sunderland, are among the South Tyneside communities covered. Peterlee
Peterlee
Peterlee is a new town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1948, Peterlee town originally mostly housed coal miners and their families.Peterlee has strong economic and community ties with Sunderland and Hartlepool.-Peterlee:...
, Horden
Horden
Horden is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated on the North Sea coast, to the east of Peterlee, approximately 12 miles south of Sunderland. Horden was a mining village until the closure of the Horden Colliery in 1987. Main features include the Welfare and Memorial Parks and St...
, Seaham
Seaham
Seaham, formerly Seaham Harbour, is a small town in County Durham, situated south of Sunderland and east of Durham. It has a small parish church, St Mary the Virgin, with a late 7th century Anglo Saxon nave resembling the church at Escomb in many respects. St Mary the Virgin is regarded as one of...
, Dawdon
Dawdon
Dawdon is a former pit community to the south of Seaham, County Durham, in England. An area of the beach near Dawdon was used in the opening scenes of the film Alien 3.- History :...
, Murton
Murton, County Durham
Murton is a village in County Durham, England. Lying six miles east of the city of Durham and seven miles south of Sunderland, it has a population of 7,339....
and Seaton
Seaton, County Durham
Seaton is a village in County Durham, in England. It is on the A19 road south of Sunderland.The village boasts two pubs....
, to the south of Sunderland, are the main towns and villages in the East Durham circulation area. The paper is also sold in Washington
Washington, Tyne and Wear
Washington is a town in the City of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, England. Historically part of County Durham, it joined a new county in 1974 with the creation of Tyne and Wear...
, Burnmoor
Bournmoor
Bournmoor is a village in County Durham, England, and is situated a short distance from Chester-le-Street. It lies on the edge of the Lambton Estate and contains St Barnabas' Church, which houses the Frostley Angel....
and Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
, which are to the west of Sunderland. Villages on the outskirts of the city, including Houghton-le-Spring
Houghton-le-Spring
Houghton-le-Spring is part of the City of Sunderland in the county of Tyne and Wear, North East England that has its recorded origins in Norman times. It is situated almost equidistant between the cathedral city of Durham 7 miles to the south-west and the centre of the City of Sunderland about 6...
, Penshaw
Penshaw
The village of Penshaw , formerly known as Painshaw or Pensher, is an area of the metropolitan district of the City of Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, England...
, Fencehouses
Fencehouses
Fencehouses, or Fence Houses, is a small village within the parish of Houghton-le-Spring, on the edge of the City of Sunderland, England.It came into existence when Napoleonic prisoners were housed on the outskirts of Houghton-le-Spring...
, Ryhope
Ryhope
Ryhope is a coastal village along the southern boundary of the City of Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, North East England. With a population of approximately 14,000, Ryhope is 2.9 miles to the centre of Sunderland, 2.8 miles to the centre of Seaham, and 1 .2 miles from the main A19.The older village...
and Hetton-le-Hole
Hetton-le-Hole
Hetton-le-Hole is a town and civil parish situated in the City of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the A182 between Houghton-le-Spring and Easington Lane. It is located on the southwest corner of Sunderland on the A182, off A690 close to the A1. It has a population of 14,402 but this...
are included in the circulation area too. The main newspaper rivals in the Sunderland and County Durham area include The Northern Echo
The Northern Echo
The Northern Echo is a leading daily regional morning newspaper, serving the North East of England. The paper is based in Priestgate, Darlington. Its covers national as well as regional news. It is one of the UK's most famous provincial newspaper titles....
, The Journal
The Journal (newspaper)
The Journal is a daily newspaper produced in Newcastle upon Tyne. Published by ncjMedia, , The Journal is produced every weekday and Saturday morning and is complemented by its sister publications the Evening Chronicle and the Sunday Sun.The newspaper mainly has a middle-class and professional...
, the Hartlepool Mail
Hartlepool Mail
The Hartlepool Mail is a newspaper serving Hartlepool and the surrounding area. It has an average daily circulation of 14,198.The paper was founded in Hartlepool in 1877 as The Northern Daily Mail and continued to be printed in the town until August 2006, when the printing staff were told they...
and the Evening Chronicle
Evening Chronicle
The Evening Chronicle is a daily, evening newspaper produced in Newcastle upon Tyne, covering Tyne and Wear, southern Northumberland and northern County Durham. It was founded in 1885 by Joseph Cowen...
. The Sunderland Star, a free weekly newspaper printed by the Echo, is also distributed in the city. According to independent research conducted on behalf of the Echo in 2000, the "popularity of the Echo in Sunderland and East Durham is greater than that of all other regional newspapers put together".
In addition to the main newspaper, the Echo also produces a number of regular supplements and articles of specialist interest each week. These include sport and business supplements each Monday, a Down Your Way local news
Local news
In journalism, local news refers to news coverage of events in a local context which would not normally be of interest to those of other localities, or otherwise be of national or international scope.-Television:...
supplement on Tuesdays, jobs, junior football and nostalgia features on Wednesdays, an entertainment supplement, cars guide and nostalgia stories on Thursdays and a property pull-out on Fridays. The Saturday edition includes a leisure pull-out, featuring fashion, entertainment and restaurant reviews, while a local history nostalgia supplement, Retro, is published once a fortnight on Mondays. Two nostalgia calendars, featuring old photographs of Sunderland and Seaham, are also produced each year.
Foundation
The first edition of the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette was printed on 22 December 1873, on a flat-bed press in Press Lane, Sunderland. Five hundred copies of the four-page issue were produced at noon and 4 pm, and sold for a halfpenny each. At present the Echo is printed on a £12 million full-colour press, installed at its purpose-built base in Pennywell, Sunderland, in 1996. More than 44,000 copies are printed each day, which sell for 42 pence each.Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, founded the paper to provide a platform for his political views and to fill a gap in the newspaper market. Although the 100,000-strong population of Sunderland was already served by two weekly newspapers—The Sunderland Times and The Sunderland Herald—neither reflected the radical views held by Storey and his partners and there were no daily papers in the town. Storey promised readers in the first edition that, if things went wrong, "the Echo would try its best to put them right". But he added: "Always with moderation and without esteeming all those who oppose us as fools and knaves." Early copies of the Echo included lengthy reports of Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
meetings, and critical articles on Liberal opponents.
The Sunderland Echo was launched with an initial investment of £3,500, raised by donations of £500 each from Storey and his business partners. Those joining the venture were Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
banker Edward Backhouse, shipbroker
Shipbroking
Shipbroking is a financial service, which forms part of the global shipping industry. Shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries/negotiators between shipowners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers and sellers of ships.Some brokerage firms have developed into large...
and MP Edward Temperley Gourley, shipbuilder and MP Sir Charles Palmer, newspaper editor Richard Ruddock, rope-maker Thomas Glaholm and draper Thomas Scott Turnbull. Lack of experience—only Ruddock had previous knowledge of newspaper management—and over-optimistic estimates of costs meant that the initial funds were quickly exhausted. Storey later admitted: "In our childlike, simple ways, we thought this might be sufficient, but in a few months all the money was gone, so we paid in another £3,500 and that soon went too." As the prospect of any great financial success receded, Ruddock, Gourley and Palmer withdrew from the project. Storey, however, remained dedicated to the idea, and took on their shares. A further £7,000 in investment from Storey enabled the remaining partners to abandon the "wheezing flat-bed press" and, in July 1876, the Echo moved to new premises at 14 Bridge Street, Sunderland.
Bridge Street
Bridge Street remained the home of the Echo for the next 100 years. Old buildings were demolished, new machine and composing rooms built on West Wear Street and two rotary presses installed just before the move, each capable of printing 24,000 copies an hour. These changes brought about increased circulation, but it took another seven years before the Echo made a profit. It was a time of intense competition; the Sunderland Times converted from a bi-weekly to a daily paper in the same month as the Echo moved to Bridge Street, and ToryTory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
supporters started a paper of their own, the Sunderland Daily Post. The Sunderland Times was the first to collapse, but the Post survived for the next quarter of a century, providing the Echo with an often bitter rival.
Following the deaths of two further partners, Backhouse in 1879 and Turnbull in 1880, Storey bought their shares to become the Echos chief proprietor. A year later, in 1881, he met Scottish-born millionaire Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
, and formed a syndicate
Syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies or entities formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest or in the case of criminals, to engage in organized crime...
with him to set up new newspapers and buy up others. Among those purchased were the Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
Express and Star, the Northern Daily Mail in Hartlepool
Hartlepool
Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...
and the Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
Evening News. An attempt to buy the Shields Gazette
Shields Gazette
The Shields Gazette, established in 1849, is a daily evening newspaper. It is the oldest provincial evening newspaper in the United Kingdom....
, the country's oldest daily newspaper, failed. The syndicate finally broke up in 1885, with Storey retaining control of the Echo, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
Telegraph, Portsmouth News and the Northern Daily Mail. These papers formed the basis of a new company, Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd, formed in the 1930s. The 19th century ended with the rivalry between the Echo and the Sunderland Daily Post intensifying. The Silksworth
Silksworth
Silksworth is a former coal mining village in Sunderland, located next to Tunstall, Farringdon and Gilley LawSilksworth a brief history:Silksworth is a former colliery village with a 100 year coal mining heritage...
Colliery strike of 1891 pitted the two papers against each other, with the Post attacking Storey for having exploited the strike for political gain. Storey successfully sued for libel.
Consolidation
The new century saw the Echo falling behind the times in its production methods. Established as a "leading daily newspaper", it was one of the last to still be setting type by hand in 1900. This changed in 1902, when LinotypeLinotype machine
The Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
lead-setting machines were brought in to set type mechanically. A landslide victory for the Liberal Party followed at the 1906 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1906
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1906*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
, which heralded a new era for the Echo. The paper's old rival, the Sunderland Daily Post, was discontinued six months later, and the Football Echo was launched on 7 September 1907.
World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
brought its own difficulties for the Echo. Reporters went off to battle and, after the cost of newsprint
Newsprint
Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of...
soared, the paper was forced to double in price to a penny
Penny (British pre-decimal coin)
The penny of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, was in circulation from the early 18th century until February 1971, Decimal Day....
. The Echos 50th anniversary in 1923 was marked by a visit from company chairman Samuel Storey. Storey died two years later, three months after his eldest son Fred, and the chairmanship passed to another Samuel—Fred's elder son. In the same year, plans were laid to improve the Bridge Street premises. The work included enlarging the printing works and was completed by the end of the 1920s.
Depression years
The depressionGreat Depression in the United Kingdom
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom, also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression...
of the 1930s brought mass unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
to Sunderland. But, for the Echo, it was also a time of important structural changes in ownership. A new company controlling the three titles owned by the Storey family was formed in 1934—Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd. There was a change in name for the Echo too, when the word Daily was dropped from its title of Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. The decade also, however, brought a fire which destroyed most of the bound files of archive copies of the Echo. Nineteenth-century editions of the Echo can only be accessed in Sunderland at the City Centre Library in Fawcett Street.
Second World War
The Second World War brought havoc to WearsideWearside
Wearside is an area of north east England, centred on the continuous urban area formed by Sunderland, Seaham and other settlements by the River Wear. Mackems is a nickname used for the people of Wearside....
, with Sunderland one of the seven most heavily bombed towns in the country. Despite the heavy shelling of the North East coast and River Wear
River Wear
The River Wear is located in North East England, rising in the Pennines and flowing eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea at Sunderland.-Geology and history:...
, the Echo offices and printing plant escaped undamaged. The Shields Gazette, the Echo's nearest rival, was not as fortunate. Its premises in Chapter Row, South Shields
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
, were bombed in September 1941 and, under an emergency wartime arrangement, the paper was printed on the Echo presses. The Echo continued to be published throughout the war, despite paper rationing
Rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...
, a lack of reporters and a strict censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of photographs. The war did have one major impact on the Echo—in the form of its size. Wartime restrictions on newsprint reduced the former broadsheet to its present tabloid size, and this style has been retained ever since.
Post-war changes and centenary
The post-war years saw the Echo drop Shipping Gazette from its main title-piece, following a redesign in 1959. Instead, the paper became known as Echo Sunderland for several years, although the name Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette continued to be printed in much smaller type above the new title. A further title-piece redesign in 1972, however, dispensed with the words Shipping Gazette and introduced an illustration of Wearmouth Bridge alongside the title Echo Sunderland.Following a major refurbishment of the Bridge Street base in the mid-1960s, the next milestones for the paper came in 1973. The first was Sunderland A.F.C.
Sunderland A.F.C.
Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...
's 1–0 win over Leeds United
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
in the FA Cup Final. Ian Porterfield's winning goal was headline news at the time, giving the Echo its all-time record circulation figure of 95,000 copies of the Sports Echo. The second important event of 1973 was the 100th anniversary of the paper. Celebrations included a birthday party, with dignitaries such as Sunderland A.F.C. manager Bob Stokoe
Bob Stokoe
Robert "Bob" Stokoe was an English footballer and manager who was able, almost uniquely, to transcend the traditional north-east rivalry between the region's footballing giants, Newcastle United and Sunderland....
among the guests. Lord Buckton
Samuel Storey, Baron Buckton
Samuel Storey, Baron Buckton , known as Sir Samuel Storey, 1st Baronet, from 1960 to 1966, was a British Conservative politician....
, the chairman of Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd, announced his retirement at the event, and was succeeded by his son, The Honourable
The Honourable
The prefix The Honourable or The Honorable is a style used before the names of certain classes of persons. It is considered an honorific styling.-International diplomacy:...
Richard Storey. News of a move from Bridge Street to Pennywell, Sunderland, was also announced during the anniversary celebrations. The old newspaper building has since been replaced by a modern apartment block. The Echo name still lives on, however, as the project as been named Echo24.
Modern era
Decades of change
The Echo moved from Bridge Street to a purpose-built newspaper office at Echo House, Pennywell Industrial Estate, in 1976. The move brought an end to the traditional methods of printing using hot molten metal to produce type and printing plates, and introduced computer technology. The £4 million development saw the Echo become the first daily newspaper in the North East to be completely produced by photo-composition and web-offset printing. It also saw a change in the EchoAnother change inspired by the move was a return for the Football Echo man. The cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
character had for years indicated the match results of Sunderland with a smile, a frown or a tear, while adorning the outside wall of the Bridge Street building. After several years in storage, he was returned to the wall of the new Echo building in 1976, where he still remains today.
In 1985 there was a break in tradition when the Echo title-piece appeared reversed out in white on a red background, instead of the more familiar red or black lettering. The new title-piece was designed to give a greater impact to the colourful front page. It was the first in a series of changes which included dropping Sunderland from the title in 1990, the paper simply becoming The Echo. This change was reversed in 1997, with a return to the name Sunderland Echo.
Technological changes
The 1990s saw the Echo take a huge technological leap forward when a £12 million printing press was installed. It was used for the first time in December 1996 and was capable of printing up to 70,000 newspapers an hour. The press was part of a multi-million pound revamp, which also saw journalists making up full news pages on computer screens for the first time. The Echos first internetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
news service was also launched in 1996. A further £5 million was spent on updating the pre-press and press hall area in 2004, to improve printing quality and speed of production.
The Echo was still part of Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers until the end of the 1990s, although printed by Northeast Press, a subsidiary of the main company. However, the last link to the original founder, Samuel Storey, disappeared in 1999, when Johnston Press took over the business in May that year. The Sunderland Echo is still published by Northeast Press, although Johnston Press—the nation's second largest regional publisher—now owns the whole company.
On-line revolution
As of February 2011, the Echo is still published each Monday to Saturday at Echo House, but the newspaper can also be read on-line. The Echo's new-look website was launched in February 2007, while a digital editing suite was created within the office at the same time. The audio-visual equipment now allows reporters to both write about and film stories as they happen, and the articles can be published on-line within seconds.Statistics show that almost 80,000 people visited the Echos website in January 2007, and this figure had risen to 216,000 by January 2008. The website is updated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with stories including football match reports and football transfer rumours among the most popular. Slideshows, videos and podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s are also included on the site in addition to the news of the day.
Expansion into magazine production
The Sunderland Echo branched out into magazine production in October 2009, with the free 'high-end lifestyle' publication etc. Twelve thousand copies are now produced each month, and etc can also be read as an E-magazine online.. The publication is aimed at an ABC1ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...
audience and, although produced by staff based at Echo House in Sunderland, it is distributed across the North East, from Alnwick
Alnwick
Alnwick is a small market town in north Northumberland, England. The town's population was just over 8000 at the time of the 2001 census and Alnwick's district population was 31,029....
in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
to Yarm
Yarm
Yarm is a small town and civil parish in the borough of Stockton-on-Tees in North East England. It is on the south bank of the River Tees and for ceremonial purposes is in North Yorkshire...
in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, as well as by direct delivery. Aimed at people with 'a large disposable income,' etc magazine includes feaures on fashion, beauty, motoring, travel, property, food and wine, as well as celebrity interviews.
Awards and recognition
The Echo has won numerous accolades, as well as governmentParliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
praise, for its campaigning journalism, specialist writing, community work, photographic images and appeals for good causes over the decades. Examples of notable writing include a 2006 campaign highlighting the threat posed by bogus callers to the elderly and a 2005 campaign to protect 999 crews from being attacked on duty, which both received official praise in Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
. A 1996 drug education campaign, which included the creation of a telephone service for tip-offs about suspected local drug dealers, was also highly praised. The Newspaper Society named the Echo as its Campaigning Newspaper of the Year for the Drug Busters drive, and the campaign also won an award from the International Newspaper Marketing Association.
In the 135 years of its existence, the Echo has become part of the culture of the North East of England and a replica branch office of the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette was built at the open air Beamish Museum
Beamish Museum
Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum is an open-air museum located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, County Durham, England. The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early...
in County Durham in 1991. Designed to show visitors how the newspaper would have operated in around 1913, the life-size exhibit includes a distribution office, reporter's office, stationery shop and fully working printing press. The replica office took museum staff several months to research and create, and was opened by Sir Richard Storey, great-grandson of Echo founder Samuel Storey, on 10 May 1991.
A racehorse was named after the paper in 1991, which was owned by a consortium of 250 Echo readers. The gelding
Gelding
A gelding is a castrated horse or other equine such as a donkey or a mule. Castration, and the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male horse to be calmer and better-behaved, making the animal quieter, gentler and potentially more suitable as an everyday...
won races at Hamilton
Hamilton, South Lanarkshire
Hamilton is a town in South Lanarkshire, in the west-central Lowlands of Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It is the fifth-biggest town in Scotland after Paisley, East Kilbride, Livingston and Cumbernauld...
, Redcar
Redcar
Redcar is a seaside resort in the north east of England, and a major town in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. It lies east-northeast of Middlesbrough by the North Sea coast...
, Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
and Haydock
Haydock
Haydock is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. It contains all of the Haydock electoral ward and a section of the Blackbrook electoral ward. The village is located roughly mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester, close to the junction of the M6 motorway...
in the early 1990s, but had to be put down on 17 February 1996 after pulling up badly lame during a routine morning gallop. The Echo was also used in a display at the Science Museum
Science Museum (London)
The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction....
in London in 1999, to show how writing can be made simpler for people with reading difficulties, and a specially printed edition of the newspaper appeared on the TV show Touching Evil
Touching Evil
Touching Evil is a British television drama serial, which began airing in 1997. It was produced by United Productions for Anglia Television, and screened on the ITV network. The first series consisted of six fifty-minute episodes. It was created by Paul Abbott, and written by Abbott with Russell T...
, starring Robson Green
Robson Green
Robson Green is an English actor, singer–songwriter and presenter.-Biography:Robson Golightly Green was born in Hexham, Northumberland, and baptised in Bethel Chapel, , and named in Northeast tradition as first son after family surnames: Robson is his grandmother's maiden surname, while Golightly...
, in the same year.
| Awards won by the Sunderland Echo | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Award | Person(s) | Work |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards | Trainee of the Year (Daily paper) | Ross Robertson | Best general news reporting portfolio from a trainee |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards | Best Columnist Columnist A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs.... |
Richard Ord | The Richard Ord Column |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards | Best Feature Writer (Daily paper) | Linda Colling | Women's features and weekly columnist |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards | Best Online Contribution | Lee Hall | Sunderland Echo website |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards | Best portfolio of pictures/Best Picture | Tony Colling | Best general news photography portfolio |
| The 2005/06 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards | Tom Cordner Quill: Trainee journalist of the Year | Bethany Usher | Best general news reporting portfolio from a trainee |
| The 2005/06 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards | North East Health Prize | Linda Colling | Best portfolio of health stories |
| The 2005/06 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards | The Steve Jones Prize For reporting that contributes most to the community | Rob Lawson - Editor | Best community stories reporting portfolio |
| The 2004/05 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards | Consumer Affairs Prize | Andrea Thurlbeck | Best general consumer reporting portfolio |
| The 2004/05 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards | The Steve Jones Prize For reporting that contributes most to the community | John Howe | Best community stories reporting portfolio |
| The 2004/05 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards | ABC Spike for overall newspaper page design | Les Oliver | Best design sub-editing portfolio |
| The 2004/05 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards | Eric Dobson Scroll | Bethany Usher | North East trainee with highest marks in the NCTJ examination |
Further reading
- Bean, William Wardell: Parliamentary Representation of the Six Northern Counties Hull Publishing, 1890 (held in the Robinson Library, University of Newcastle)
- The Durham Thirteen: Biographical sketches of the Members of Parliament returned for the City, Boroughs, and County of Durham, at the general election of 1874 Published by J Hyslop Bell, Darlington, 1874
- Book and News Trade Gazette Published 6 October 1894
- The Alderman (magazine) Published 8 April 1876
- Wearside Review: Local notabilities Published by the Sunderland Daily Echo, 1886
External links
- Wearsideonline: A brief history of the Echo
- Hold The Front Page: Echo awards and stories about the paper.