W.T. Stead & the Northern Echo

The Northern Echo was founded in Darlington in 1870. It was started by Liberal Scotsman, John Hyslop Bell at the behest of local industrial magnates, the Peases, largely to counter the political outpourings of rival newspapers, the Darlington & Stockton Times and the Darlington Mercury. Under Stead, its second editor, the Echo enjoyed, perhaps, its greatest successes, both nationally and internationally, winning in the process the admiration of Leading Liberals such as W.E. Gladstone and Joseph Chamberlain. However, the loss of Stead to the Pall Mall Gazette in 1880 and Bell's resignation in 1889 was a critical blow to the Echo, and sales slumped for decades after. The collapse of the Pease dynasty and increased competition from rival newspapers added to the Echo's troubles, and by the time it limped into the twentieth century, it was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was saved from ruin in 1903, when it was acquired by the North of England Newspaper Company, a group owned by chocolateers Rowntree. A further takeover by Westminster Press (also known as the Starmer Group) in 1921 secured the Echo's future and it remains today one of the longest-serving newspapers in north-eastern England.

Political & Foreign

• Our Policy in the East (June 24, 1876)
• The War (July 5, 1876)
• England and the Eastern Insurgents (July 13, 1876)

Crime & Social

• Indiscriminate Charity (Feb. 7, 1870)
• Democracy and Christianity (Oct. 14, 1870)
• Bishop Frazer on the Social Evil (Oct. 27, 1871)    
• A Painful Subject (Oct. 23, 1872)    
• The Executions (Jan. 5, 1874)
• North Country Members & the CD Acts (July 18, 1876)

Miscellaneous

• The Preacher's Son who Saved Prostitutes (July 5, 1999)
• Northern Echo Prospectus (1869)
• Judgement by Default (July 15, 1885)
• Mr. W.T. Stead: The Career of an Ex-Editor of the Northern Echo (April 17, 1912)