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The ''Sunderland Echo'' is a daily newspaper serving the
Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
,
South Tyneside South Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, North East England. It is bordered by all four other boroughs in Tyne and Wear – Gateshead to the west, Sunderland in the south, North Tyneside to the nor ...
and East Durham areas of
North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...
. The newspaper was founded by
Samuel Storey Samuel Storey (1841–1925) 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 Samuel Storey was born in Sherburn, near Durh ...
,
Edward Backhouse Edward Backhouse (1808–1879) was a Quaker philanthropist and writer on church history. He was also one of the founding fathers of the ''Sunderland Echo'' newspaper. He was recognised as having the gift of vocal ministry in 1854. Early life ...
,
Edward Temperley Gourley Sir Edward Temperley Gourley (8 June 1826 – 15 April 1902) was a coal fitter, shipowner and politician born in Sunderland, England. He was knighted for his political work. Early life Edward Temperley Gourley - known as E.T. Gourley - was ...
,
Charles Palmer Charles Palmer may refer to: * Charles Palmer (1777–1851), Member of Parliament for Bath * Sir Charles Palmer, 1st Baronet (1822–1907), English shipbuilder, businessman and Liberal Member of Parliament, 1874–1907 * Sir Charles Palmer, 2nd Ba ...
, 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 Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
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 A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
to its current tabloid layout, because of national
newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has an ...
shortages. The ''Echo'' is published Monday–Saturday and was formerly part of the
Johnston Press Johnston Press plc was a multimedia company founded in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1767. Its flagship titles included UK-national newspaper the '' i'', ''The Scotsman'', the ''Yorkshire Post'', the ''Falkirk Herald'', and Belfast's ''The News Letter'' ...
group—one of the United Kingdom's largest publishers of local and regional newspapers. As of December 2021, the paper had an average daily circulation of 5.662. The ''Echo'' was based at Echo House,
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, from 1976 until April 2015. The ''Echo'' moved to Rainton Meadows Industrial Estate that year and then to the North East Business and Innovation (BIC) Centre at Wearfield, Sunderland, in 2019. In December 2020 it was announced that former Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery's group ''National World'' had acquired JPI Media, which owned the ''Echo'' and other newspapers, for £10.2m.


General overview


Facts and figures

The ''Sunderland Echo'' is an evening newspaper, published from Monday to Saturday each week. The paper has a daily circulation of 5,662. 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
League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
football team,
Sunderland AFC Sunderland Association Football Club (, ) is an English professional football club based in the city of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Formed in 1879, Sunderland play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club has won six t ...
. 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 Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...
, with between 44 and 50% of people in each
socio-economic Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local ...
grouping being regular readers.


Circulation and supplements

The ''Sunderland Echo'' covers a circulation area of in North East England, which includes parts of
South Tyneside South Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, North East England. It is bordered by all four other boroughs in Tyne and Wear – Gateshead to the west, Sunderland in the south, North Tyneside to the nor ...
and
County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly â€About North East E ...
, as well as the city of Sunderland. Whitburn, Marsden and
The Boldons The Boldons are a group of three small villages in the north east of England – East Boldon, West Boldon and Boldon Colliery – north of Sunderland, east of Newcastle and south of South Shields and Jarrow. In 2001 they had a population of 13 ...
, all to the north of Sunderland, are among the South Tyneside communities covered.
Peterlee Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It lies between Sunderland to the north, Hartlepool to the south, the Durham Coast to the east and Durham to the west. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946. The act also create ...
,
Horden Horden is a village and electoral ward 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 Collier ...
,
Seaham Seaham is a seaside town in County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated south of Sunderland and east of Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as a result of investments in its harbour and c ...
,
Dawdon Dawdon is a former pit community to the south of Seaham, County Durham, England. An area of the beach near Dawdon (known locally as "the Blast", a former waste coal dumping site) was used in the opening scenes of the science fiction film Alien ...
, 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 Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, Burnmoor and
Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
, which are to the west of Sunderland. Villages on the outskirts of the city, including
Houghton-le-Spring Houghton-le-Spring ( ) is a town in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England which has its recorded origins in Norman times. Historically in County Durham, it is now administered as part of the Tyne and Wear county. It is s ...
,
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. Historically, Penshaw was located in County Durham. Name and etymology The ...
,
Fencehouses Fence Houses, or ''Fencehouses'', is a small village within the parish of Houghton-le-Spring, on the edge of the City of Sunderland, England for the South with the North under the control of Durham County Council as part of County Durham. It cam ...
,
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, measured at 10.484 in the 2011 census, Ryhope is 2.9 miles to the centre of S ...
and
Hetton-le-Hole Hetton-le-Hole is a town situated in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. It is in the historic county of Durham. A182 runs through the town, between Houghton-le-Spring and Easington Lane (the latter borders the County Durham Distri ...
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'' is a regional daily morning newspaper based in the town of Darlington in North East England, serving mainly southern County Durham and northern Yorkshire. The paper covers national as well as regional news. In 2007, its t ...
'', '' The Journal'', the ''
Hartlepool Mail The ''Hartlepool Mail'' is a newspaper serving Hartlepool, England and the surrounding area. As of December 2021, it has an average daily circulation of 1,570. History The paper was founded in Hartlepool in 1877 as ''The Northern Daily Mail'' a ...
'' and the ''
Evening Chronicle The ''Evening Chronicle'', now referred to as ''The Comical'', is a daily newspaper produced in Newcastle upon Tyne covering North regional news, but primarily focused on Newcastle upon Tyne and surrounding area. The ''Comical'' is published by ...
''. 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 month. Nostalgia calendars, featuring old photographs of Sunderland and Seaham, are also produced.


Early years


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. 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 Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...
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 Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
banker Edward Backhouse,
shipbroker Shipbroking is a financial service, which forms part of the global shipping industry. Shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries/negotiators (i.e. brokers) between shipowners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers an ...
and MP Edward Temperley Gourley,
shipbuilder Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...
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
Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
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 (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
, and formed a
syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French language, Frenc ...
with him to set up new newspapers and buy up others. Among those purchased were the ''
Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
Express and Star'', the ''Northern Daily Mail'' in
Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...
and the ''
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...
Evening News''. An attempt to buy the ''
Shields Gazette The ''Shields Gazette'', established in 1849, is a daily newspaper. It was known as the oldest provincial evening newspaper in the United Kingdom. It was originally established as a weekly paper - the ''North and South Shields Gazette and Nort ...
'', the country's oldest daily newspaper, failed. The syndicate finally broke up in 1885, with Storey retaining control of the ''Echo'', ''
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
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 is a suburb of the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. The area can be distinguished into two parts, old Silksworth, the original village and township which has existed since the early middle ages, and New Silksworth, the industrial ...
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.


20th century


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 Linotype lead-setting machines were brought in to set type mechanically. A landslide victory for the Liberal Party followed at the 1906
General Election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
, 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 (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
brought its own difficulties for the ''Echo''. Reporters went off to battle and, after the cost of
newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has an ...
soared, the paper was forced to double in price to a
penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...
. 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 depression of the 1930s brought
mass unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...
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 Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
at the City Centre Library in Fawcett Street.


Second World War

The Second World War brought havoc to
Wearside Wearside () is a built-up area in both Tyne and Wear and County Durham, Northern England. It is named after the River Wear which flows through it and traditionally all in the County of Durham. In the 2011 census, its official name was the Sunder ...
, 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 River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through th ...
, 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 () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...
, 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 is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...
, 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.


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 Wearmouth Bridge is a through arch bridge across the River Wear in Sunderland. It is the final bridge over the river before its mouth with the North Sea. Original bridge The original Wearmouth Bridge was designed by Thomas Paine and opened in ...
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 Association Football Club (, ) is an English professional football club based in the city of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Formed in 1879, Sunderland play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club has won six t ...
's 1–0 win over
Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...
in the
FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...
.
Ian Porterfield John Ian Porterfield (11 February 1946 – 11 September 2007) was a Scottish professional footballer, and an experienced football coach who worked at both club and international level for almost 30 years. At the time of his death, he was the coa ...
'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 Robert Stokoe (21 September 1930 – 1 February 2004) was an English footballer and manager who was able, almost uniquely, to transcend the traditional north-east animosity between the region's footballing rivals, Newcastle United and Sunderlan ...
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 ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...
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 has 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 ''Echo'''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 A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
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 multimillion-pound revamp, which also saw journalists making up full news pages on computer screens for the first time. The ''Echos first internet 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. 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. On Saturday, 3 November, the final ''Echo'' was printed in Sunderland. The ''Echo'' was based at Echo House,
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, from 1976 until April 2015.


On-line revolution

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 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 rose 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 A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
s are also included on the site in addition to the news of the day.


Awards and recognition

The ''Echo'' has won numerous accolades, as well as
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
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 In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. 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 is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it wa ...
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 A gelding is a castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. Castration, as well as the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male equine to be calmer and better-behaved, makin ...
won races at
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...
,
Redcar Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located east of Middlesbrough. The Teesside built-up area's Redcar subdivision had a population of ...
,
Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
and
Haydock Haydock is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 11,416 Haydock's historic area covers the Haydock electoral ward and a section of the Blackbrook ward. Haydoc ...
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 A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...
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'' is a British television drama serial following the exploits of a crack squad on the Organised & Serial Crime Unit, a rapid response police force that serves the entire country. The serial was produced by United Productions f ...
'', starring
Robson Green Robson Golightly Green (born 18 December 1964) is an English actor, angler, singer-songwriter and presenter. His first major TV role was as hospital porter Jimmy Powell in BBC drama series ''Casualty'' in 1989. He then went on to portray Fusili ...
, in the same year.


References


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


the Sunderland Echo website


A brief history of the ''Echo''
Hold The Front Page:
''Echo'' awards and stories about the paper. {{Featured article Newspapers published in Tyne and Wear Publications established in 1873 City of Sunderland County Durham 1873 establishments in England Daily newspapers published in the United Kingdom Newspapers published by Johnston Press