.jpg) The first edition of the Echo – on 22 December 1873 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | National World |
| Publisher | National World |
| Editor | Ross Robertson |
| Founded | 22 December 1873 (as The 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 |
The Sunderland Echo is a daily newspaper serving the Sunderland, South Tyneside and East Durham areas of North East England.[2] 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.[3] Designed to provide a platform for the Radical views held by Storey and his partners, it was also Sunderland's first local daily paper.[4][5]
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.[3] 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 World War II 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.[6]
The Echo is published Monday–Saturday and was formerly part of the Johnston 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 daily circulation of 4,580[8][9][10] The Echo was based at Echo House, Pennywell 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.[11] 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.[12]
- ^ "Sunderland Echo". Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK). 22 February 2024. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
- ^ "Media and marketing information" (PDF). North East Press. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
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sunarchiveswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Andrew Murray-Watson (2 September 2007). "Johnston joins the digital revolution". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
- ^ "ABC figures" (PDF). ABC circulation figures. 2022. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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echodigwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Sunderland Echo to begin new chapter with office move". sunderlandecho.com. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
- ^ "About us". National World. Retrieved 8 March 2022.