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 Front page from 16 August 2025 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | National World |
| Publisher | National World |
| Editor | Print Editor Ian Arkle / Digital Editor Vanessa Sims |
| Founded | 22 December 1873 (asThe Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette) |
| Political alignment | Independent |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | North East Business & Innovation Centre, Westfield, Enterprise Park East, Sunderland, SR5 2TA |
| Circulation | 3,611 (as of 2023)[1] |
| Sister newspapers | Hartlepool Mail,Shields Gazette |
| Website | sunderlandecho |
TheSunderland Echo is a daily newspaper serving theSunderland,South Tyneside andEast Durham areas ofNorth East England.[2] The newspaper was founded bySamuel Storey,Edward Backhouse,Edward Temperley Gourley,Charles Palmer,Richard Ruddock,Thomas Glaholm andThomas Scott Turnbull in 1873, as theSunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette.[3] Designed to provide a platform for theRadical views held by Storey and his partners, it was also Sunderland's first local daily paper.[4][5]
The inaugural edition of theEcho was printed in Press Lane, Sunderland on 22 December 1873; 1,000 copies were produced and sold for ahalfpenny each.[3] TheEcho survived intense competition in its early years, as well as thedepression of the 1930s and two World Wars. Sunderland was heavily bombed inWorld War II and, although theEcho 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 abroadsheet to its currenttabloid layout, because of nationalnewsprint shortages.[6]
TheEcho is published Monday–Saturday and was formerly part of theJohnston Press group—one of the United Kingdom's largest publishers of local and regional newspapers.[7] As of December 2022, the paper had an average dailycirculation of 4,580[8][9][10] TheEcho was based at Echo House,Pennywell Industrial Estate, Sunderland, from 1976 until April 2015. TheEcho moved to Rainton Meadows Industrial Estate that year and then to the North East Business and Innovation (BIC) Centre at Wearfield, Sunderland, in 2019.[11] In December 2020 it was announced that formerMirror Group chief executive David Montgomery's groupNational World had acquired JPI Media, which owned theEcho and other newspapers, for £10.2m.[12]
| Circulation and price[13] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 2008 | 42 pence | 44,198 |
| 2012 | 55 pence | 29,366 |
| 2013 | 60 pence | 22,686 |
| 2014 | 70 pence | 18,876 |
| 2017 | 75 pence | 11,075 |
| 2022 | 90 pence | 4,580 |
TheSunderland Echo is an evening newspaper, published from Monday to Saturday each week.[14] The paper has a daily circulation of 4,580.[15] The news coverage provided by theEcho focuses mainly on local events, including human interest, crime and court stories, as well as reports on the local football team,Sunderland AFC.[16]
Independent research carried out for theEcho in 2000 found readers spent an average of 33 minutes reading the paper. The same survey showed theEcho appealed to people across the range ofdemographics, with between 44 and 50% of people in eachsocio-economic grouping being regular readers.[17]
TheSunderland Echo covers a circulation area of 40 square miles (100 km2) in North East England, which includes parts ofSouth Tyneside andCounty Durham, as well as the city of Sunderland.Whitburn,Marsden andThe Boldons, all to the north of Sunderland, are among the South Tyneside communities covered.Peterlee,Horden,Seaham,Dawdon,Murton andSeaton, to the south of Sunderland, are the main towns and villages in the East Durham circulation area. The paper is also sold inWashington,Burnmoor andDurham, which are to the west of Sunderland. Villages on the outskirts of the city, includingHoughton-le-Spring,Penshaw,Fencehouses,Ryhope andHetton-le-Hole are included in the circulation area too.[2][18] The main newspaper rivals in the Sunderland and County Durham area includeThe Northern Echo,The Journal, theHartlepool Mail and theEvening Chronicle. TheSunderland Star, a free weekly newspaper printed by theEcho, is also distributed in the city.[19][20] According to independent research conducted on behalf of theEcho in 2000, the "popularity of theEcho in Sunderland and East Durham is greater than that of all other regional newspapers put together".[17]
In addition to the main newspaper, theEcho also produces a number of regular supplements and articles of specialist interest each week. These include sport and business supplements each Monday, aDown Your Waylocal 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 month.[16][21] Nostalgia calendars, featuring old photographs of Sunderland and Seaham, are also produced.[22]
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The first edition of theSunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette was printed on 22 December 1873, on a flat-bed press in Press Lane, Sunderland.[4][23] Five hundred copies of the four-page issue were produced at noon and 4 pm, and sold for a halfpenny each.[3][24]
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.[4][5] Although the 100,000-strong population of Sunderland was already served by two weekly newspapers—The Sunderland Times andThe Sunderland Herald—neither reflected the radical views held by Storey and his partners and there were no daily papers in the town.[14] Storey promised readers in the first edition that, if things went wrong, "theEcho 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."[25] Early copies of theEcho included lengthy reports ofLiberal meetings, and critical articles on Liberal opponents.[3][4][5]
TheSunderland Echo was launched with an initial investment of £3,500, raised by donations of £500 each from Storey and his business partners.[5][26] Those joining the venture wereQuaker 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.[3] 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.[5][14][23] 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."[23] 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.[3][27] A further £7,000 in investment from Storey enabled the remaining partners to abandon the "wheezing flat-bed press"[23] and, in July 1876, theEcho moved to new premises at 14 Bridge Street, Sunderland.[3]
Bridge Street remained the home of theEcho for the next 100 years.[28] 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.[14] These changes brought about increased circulation, but it took another seven years before theEcho made a profit.[23] It was a time of intense competition; theSunderland Times converted from a bi-weekly to a daily paper in the same month as theEcho moved to Bridge Street, andTory supporters started a paper of their own, theSunderland Daily Post.[4] TheSunderland Times was the first to collapse, but thePost survived for the next quarter of a century, providing theEcho with an often bitter rival.[4][5][23]
Following the deaths of two further partners, Backhouse in 1879 and Turnbull in 1880, Storey bought their shares to become theEcho's chief proprietor.[23] A year later, in 1881, he met Scottish-born millionaireAndrew Carnegie, and formed asyndicate with him to set up new newspapers and buy up others. Among those purchased were theWolverhampton Express and Star, theNorthern Daily Mail inHartlepool and thePortsmouth Evening News. An attempt to buy theShields Gazette, the country's oldest daily newspaper, failed.[6] The syndicate finally broke up in 1885, with Storey retaining control of theEcho,Hampshire Telegraph,Portsmouth News and theNorthern Daily Mail. These papers formed the basis of a new company, Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd, formed in the 1930s.[14] The 19th century ended with the rivalry between theEcho and theSunderland Daily Post intensifying. TheSilksworth Colliery strike of 1891 pitted the two papers against each other, with thePost attacking Storey for having exploited the strike for political gain. Storey successfully sued for libel.[4][5][23]
The new century saw theEcho falling behind the times in its production methods. Established as a "leading daily newspaper",[3] it was one of the last to still be setting type by hand in 1900.[23] This changed in 1902, whenLinotype lead-setting machines were brought in to set type mechanically.[6] A landslide victory for the Liberal Party followed at the 1906General Election, which heralded a new era for theEcho. The paper's old rival, theSunderland Daily Post, was discontinued six months later, and theFootball Echo was launched on 7 September 1907.[4][29][30]
World War I brought its own difficulties for theEcho. Reporters went off to battle and, after the cost ofnewsprint soared, the paper was forced to double in price to apenny.[23] TheEcho's 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.[6]
Thedepression of the 1930s broughtmass unemployment to Sunderland. But, for theEcho, 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.[6] There was a change in name for theEcho too, when the wordDaily was dropped from its title ofSunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette.[6] The decade also, however, brought a fire which destroyed most of the bound files of archive copies of theEcho. Nineteenth-century editions of theEcho can only be accessed inSunderland at the City Centre Library in Fawcett Street.[16]
The Second World War brought havoc toWearside, with Sunderland one of the seven most heavily bombed towns in the country.[31] Despite the heavy shelling of the North East coast andRiver Wear, theEcho offices and printing plant escaped undamaged. TheShields Gazette, theEcho'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 theEcho presses.[32][33] TheEcho continued to be published throughout the war, despite paperrationing, a lack of reporters and a strict censorship of photographs.[34] The war did have one major impact on theEcho—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.[6][32]
The post-war years saw theEcho dropShipping Gazette from its main title-piece, following a redesign in 1959. Instead, the paper became known asEcho Sunderland for several years, although the nameSunderland 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 wordsShipping Gazette and introduced an illustration ofWearmouth Bridge alongside the titleEcho Sunderland.
Following a major refurbishment of the Bridge Street base in the mid-1960s,[28] the next milestones for the paper came in 1973. The first wasSunderland A.F.C.'s 1–0 win overLeeds United in theFA Cup final.Ian Porterfield's winning goal was headline news at the time, giving theEcho its all-time record circulation figure of 95,000 copies of theSports Echo.[6][35] 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. managerBob 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.[6] The old newspaper building has since been replaced by a modern apartment block. TheEcho name still lives on, however, as the project has been namedEcho24.[36]
TheEcho 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.[4] The £4 million development saw theEcho 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 theEcho's appearance, with a new shape, bolder typefaces and clearer printing. The first new-lookEcho was printed at Pennywell on 26 April 1976 and was issue number 32,512.[6]
Another change inspired by the move was a return for theFootball Echo man. Thecartoon 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 newEcho building in 1976, where he still remains today.[37]
In 1985 there was a break in tradition when theEcho 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.[6] It was the first in a series of changes which included droppingSunderland from the title in 1990, the paper simply becomingThe Echo. This change was reversed in 1997, with a return to the nameSunderland Echo.[6][38]
The 1990s saw theEcho 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 multimillion-pound revamp, which also saw journalists making up full news pages on computer screens for the first time. TheEcho's first internet news service was also launched in 1996.[6] 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.[39]
TheEcho 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. TheSunderland Echo is still published by Northeast Press, although Johnston Press—the nation's second largest regional publisher—now owns the whole company.[40] In September 2012 it was announced the multimillion-pound press hall was to close, with the loss of 81 jobs, and printing operations moved to Sheffield.[41] On Saturday, 3 November, the finalEcho was printed in Sunderland.[42] TheEcho was based at Echo House,Pennywell Industrial Estate, Sunderland, from 1976 until April 2015.
TheEcho's new-look website was launched in February 2007, while a digital editing suite was created within the office at the same time.[18] The audio-visual equipment allows reporters to both write about and film stories as they happen, and the articles can be published on-line within seconds.[10][43]
Statistics show that almost 80,000 people visited theEcho's website in January 2007, and this figure rose to 216,000 by January 2008.[9] 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 andpodcasts are also included on the site in addition to the news of the day.[10]
TheEcho has won numerous accolades, as well asgovernment praise, for its campaigning journalism, specialist writing, community work, photographic images and appeals for good causes over the decades.[44][45] 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 inParliament.[46][47] 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. TheNewspaper Society named theEcho as its Campaigning Newspaper of the Year for theDrug Busters drive, and the campaign also won an award from theInternational Newspaper Marketing Association.[48]
In the 135 years of its existence, theEcho has become part of the culture of the North East of England and a replica branch office of theSunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette was built at the open airBeamish Museum in County Durham in 1991.[49] 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.[50] The replica office took museum staff several months to research and create, and was opened by Sir Richard Storey, great-grandson ofEcho founder Samuel Storey, on 10 May 1991.[49]
A racehorse was named after the paper in 1991, which was owned by a consortium of 250 Echo readers. Thegelding won races atHamilton,Redcar,Newcastle upon Tyne andHaydock in the early 1990s, but had to be put down on 17 February 1996 after pulling up badly lame during a routine morning gallop.[51] TheEcho was also used in a display at theScience 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 showTouching Evil, starringRobson Green, in the same year.[52][53]
| Awards won by theSunderland Echo | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Award | Person(s) | Work | |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards[44] | Trainee of the Year (Daily paper) | Ross Robertson | Best general news reporting portfolio from a trainee | |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards[44] | Best Columnist | Richard Ord | The Richard Ord Column | |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards[44] | Best Feature Writer (Daily paper) | Linda Colling | Women's features and weekly columnist | |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards[44] | Best Online Contribution | Lee Hall | Sunderland Echo website | |
| 2008 Northeast Press Awards[44] | Best portfolio of pictures/Best Picture | Tony Colling | Best general news photography portfolio | |
| The 2005/06 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards[54] | 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[54] | North East Health Prize | Linda Colling | Best portfolio of health stories | |
| The 2005/06 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards[54] | 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[55] | Consumer Affairs Prize | Andrea Thurlbeck | Best general consumer reporting portfolio | |
| The 2004/05 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards[55] | 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[55] | ABC Spike for overall newspaper page design | Les Oliver | Best design sub-editing portfolio | |
| The 2004/05 Tom Cordner North East Press Awards[55] | Eric Dobson Scroll | Bethany Usher | North East trainee with highest marks in the NCTJ examination | |
The Shields Gazette Offices and Printing Works received a direct hit by heavy calibre bombs, the whole printing department and part of the offices were wrecked.
