''The Bedworth Echo'' was a weekly paid-for newspaper which was founded in 1979. The ''Echo'' was the only newspaper to exclusively serve

Bedworth Bedworth ( or locally ) is a market town and unparished area in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth, Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It is situated between Coventry, 6 miles (9.5 km) to the south, a ...

. It was further distributed to the neighbouring market town of

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...

, as well as

Atherstone Atherstone is a market town and civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England. Located in the far north of the county, Atherstone is on the A5 national route, and is adjacent to the border with Leicestershire which ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbor ...

, and

Market Bosworth Market Bosworth is a market town and civil parish in western Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle of ...

. The newspaper was co-founded by former Nuneaton Evening Tribune sports writer Mort Birch and former Nuneaton Observer sports editor Alan Robinson. It was owned by Midlands-based publishing group Coventry Newspapers Limited, a division of the Trinity Mirror Midlands group. In June 2007, journalists at the Bedworth Echo, who were also members of the National Union of Journalists, voted to go on strike to protest over their pay after explaining they were unhappy with other newspaper centres owned by the group for 'earning more for doing the same job'. The ''Echos journalists went on strike with Coventry Newspaper journalists from their sister titles, including ''The Coventry Citizen'', ''

Coventry Evening Telegraph The ''Coventry Telegraph'' is a local English tabloid newspaper. It was founded as ''The Midland Daily Telegraph'' in 1891 by William Isaac Iliffe, and was Coventry's first daily newspaper. Sold for half a penny, it was a four-page broadsheet ne ...

'', '' The Hinckley Herald & Journal'', ''

The Hinckley Times ''The Hinckley Times'' is a weekly paid-for tabloid newspaper which is distributed every Wednesday and mainly serves the area of Hinckley. The paper further serves the surrounding areas in Leicestershire, including Market Bosworth, Coalville and L ...

'' and ''The Nuneaton Weekly Tribune''. The 24-hour walk-out strike and temporary stoppage took place on Friday 17 June 2007. In November 2007, The Birmingham Press Club announced their shortlist for the Midlands Media Awards. John Harris, a then-reporter at the title was nominated for News Reporter of the Year and Sports Journalist of the Year at the awards that year. Meetings were held back in September 2008 by the paper's publisher, Trinity Mirror Midlands, where executives proposed potentially making cuts and redundancies at their localised titles including the Echo. Mike O'Brien, MP for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

at the time, tried to tackle the cuts calling them 'serious attacks on news, journalists and journalism', further explaining the point that 'the Bedworth Echo has no office in the town' and that "some fine journalists try to keep in touch from a distance". Steve Brown, Trinity Mirror's regional director agreed to meet O'Brien to talk over the plans. In July 2009, the redundancies and cutbacks which were discussed a year prior were officially announced. The news was broken coming out of a meeting held by Trinity Mirror executives. As a result, 94 jobs were set to be cut across nine regional newspapers, with jobs at the Bedworth Echo affected.

References

1979 establishments in England Bedworth Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom Newspapers published in Warwickshire Newspapers established in 1979 Publications disestablished in 2009 {{England-newspaper-stub