 ANorthern Echo front page from 2007 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Compact (tabloid) |
| Owner(s) | Newsquest |
| Founder(s) | John Hyslop Bell and thePease family |
| Editor | Gavin Foster |
| Founded | 1870 |
| Political alignment | Independent |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Darlington, County Durham |
| Circulation | 8,701 (as of 2023)[1] |
| Sister newspapers | Darlington & Stockton Times The Advertiser |
| ISSN | 2043-0442 |
| Website | thenorthernecho |
The Northern Echo is a regional daily morningnewspaper based in the town ofDarlington in North East England, serving mainly southernCounty Durham and northernYorkshire. The paper covers national as well as regional news. In 2007, its then-editor claimed that it was one of the most famous provincial newspapers in the United Kingdom.[2] Its first edition was published on 1 January 1870.
Its second editor wasW. T. Stead, the early pioneer of Britishinvestigative journalism, who earned the paper accolades from the leadingLiberals of the day, seeing it applauded as "the best paper in Europe."Harold Evans, one of the great campaigning journalists of all time, was editor ofThe Northern Echo in the 1960s and argued the case for cervical smear tests for women. Evans agreed with Stead that reporting was "a very good way of attacking the devil".[3]
The Northern Echo was started byJohn Hyslop Bell with the backing of thePease family, largely to counter the conservative outpourings of rival newspapers, theDarlington & Stockton Times and theDarlington Mercury.[4] The paper enjoyed early success under its second editor,W. T. Stead, an early pioneer ofinvestigative journalism, who brought the paper international notoriety during theBulgarian Atrocities agitation in 1876. Leading Liberals such asGladstone andJoseph Chamberlain became great admirers, and the historianE. A. Freeman went so far as to declare theNorthern Echo, as "the best paper in Europe."[5]
However, the loss of Stead to thePall Mall Gazette in 1880 and the resignation of founder Bell in 1889 took a heavy toll on theEcho and its sales slumped to a critical low for decades after. The collapse of the Pease dynasty and increased competition from rival newspapers added to theEcho's troubles and, by the time it limped into the twentieth century, led byJohn Marshall, it was on the verge of bankruptcy.[4] The echo employed the editor's daughterEmilie Marshall and she would become a leading journalist after her father was sacked.[6]
The paper was saved from ruin in 1903, when it was acquired by the North of England Newspaper Company, a group owned by chocolatiersRowntree. An acquisition by Westminster Press (also known as the Starmer Group) in 1921 secured theEcho's future.[4]
In 1936Edward Pickering begun his apprenticeship at theEcho, eventually rising to the position of district reporter and sub-editor, before leaving to sub-edit theDaily Mirror.[7] He eventually became editor of theDaily Express before rising to the position of executive vice-chairman atNews International.[7]
For five yearsHarold Evans (former deputy editor of theManchester Evening News) was editor of the paper, which was a time he "loved".[8] One of his campaigns resulted in a national programme for the detection ofcervical cancer. He also campaigned against air pollution on Teesside and for the floodlighting of Durham Cathedral. When Evans left theEcho in 1967, he moved to London as editor ofThe Sunday Times. Evans has said of his time at the Echo:
It has 99,000 circulation when I went there; when I left it had 114,000. It spread over a very large area; two English counties and a couple of cities. It was a morning paper competing against nine national dailies produced in London and Manchester, three regional morning [papers] and two or three evening [papers], so [it had] intense competition in the North East of England, where most of the readers were coal miners and industrial workers, but in the south a belt of farmers and gentry, so it was a fascinating social market to reach. I took from my American experience a zest for investigative journalism, and campaigned about air pollution and many other things, the most interesting one in a way was that I campaigned for an inquiry into a man who had been hanged for a murder he didn't do, the famousJohn Christie case ... After a year of campaigning from the North East of England I got a national inquiry into the Evans hanging.[8]
Today,The Northern Echo is owned byNewsquest (Yorkshire and North East) Ltd. According to theAudit Bureau of Circulations during the second half of 2010,The Northern Echo sold on average approximately 42,000 copies daily.[9] It has four editions covering Darlington, county Durham, North Yorkshire andTeesside.[10] In June 2008, the newspaper announced it would reduce the number of editions to two.[11]
Although traditionally abroadsheet, since 26 February 2007 the newspaper has been published in atabloid format.[12] The newspaper transformed itself from a broadsheet to a tabloid in a one-year transition process, beginning with Saturday editions on 14 January 2006.[13][14]
The Northern Echo has a number of sister publications, including the weeklyDarlington & Stockton Times and the freeAdvertiser series.
In recent years, the web edition has used a paywall - allowing a limited number of articles to be viewed free.
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