When you’ve got a story involving more than 100 vulnerable, elderly folk and the threatened closure of their residential homes, it’s tempting to go for a sensational splash.

Among the headline-grabbers available to The Northern Echo on Wednesday July 21 were the following potentials:

‘My aunt, aged 100, will die if you throw her out'; or

‘Council to eject 100-year-old cousins from home'; or

‘War heroine, aged 92, to be made homeless’.

But while all the above headlines would have provided an accurate depiction of specific human interest dilemmas, the Echo’s actual treatment was far more general and restrained.

‘Decision day for old folks homes’ was the page one headline, with ‘Family of Aycliffe Angel still praying’ describing the last hopes for a council reprieve on page two, and ‘Conundrum for local authorities’ on page three.

Were Echo editor Peter Barron and his news desk right to play it so straight? Personally, I think they were.

For a start, this was a running story, and the personal angst of residents and their families may well have been aired before.

Secondly, at a time when every public sector service is facing unprecedented cuts, the Echo may well have thought it irresponsible to play agent provocateur.

Instead, they presented the facts, fully describing Durham County Council’s predicament and, with equal detail, the emotion of the old people and relatives involved.

Thirdly, while its shape is now compact, the Echo is a traditional morning broadsheet in its style of delivery, and it would not seem right to its readers to go for the easy jugular.

The result of the Echo’s subtle approach was interesting: while it took me longer to get hooked, the essential facts were themselves gripping enough to keep me focused.

And once I’d read the splash (24 pars in all, turning to page 2), the background leads (another 22 and 16 pars), emotive quotes from angry families (an 11-par side-bar) and a really useful picture graphic, I was outraged for the elderly concerned.

But importantly, my ire was not bludgeoned out of me spluttering Sun-style, but simmered naturally from within after a calm appreciation of all the facts and feelings provided in a fair and balanced package by the Echo.

Another nice touch was the front page panel underneath the lead, reading: ‘Go to northernecho.co.uk for the result of today’s meeting and don’t miss The Northern Echo tomorrow for a full report, reaction and analysis’.

I was nowhere near Darlington the next day, and so got my update from the website, where more detailed reports told me the results of the ‘decision day’ here and here.

I liked this intelligent use of boosts to the web, far more refreshing than the bland ‘for the latest news click here’ versions.

Despite my positive appraisal of the Echo’s treatment of this splash and spread, the front page overall did leave me wanting someone on the backbench to try harder.

Whatever words were used for the lead headline, did it have to be quite so shy on all four decks? And surely a picture of a furious 100-year-old could have made a better package for page one?

That said, there was nothing wrong with the picture from Wootton Bassett that was used, the grieving daughter of a Gurkha creating a counter-intuitive notion for any nationalists too ready to lash out at anyone of Asian descent over Afghanistan casualties.

But the boosts under the masthead and down the right-hand side were, for me, far too wordy and bland.

Inside and past pages two and three, I was pleased to see plenty of staff reports from local courts, including:

‘Pregnant woman was kicked in the stomach’ on page four, covering a Darlington garden attack;

‘Teenager faces jail for fatal nightclub punch’ on page five, describing a local nightclub death;

‘Nurse jailed for phone smuggling’ on page nine, a fascinating tale about a prison nurse’s misdemeanours; and

‘Blonde invited man into toilet, jury told’ on page 41, a sorry tale of a pub groping gone wrong.

Yes, it costs regionals a small fortune to cover local courts properly, but here was a day’s worth of evidence showing the colourful tales that can be told, and offenders that need to be exposed. No media but the good regional gets down to this level of court reporting.

In all, there were 25 editorial pages of news and features in the Echo, carrying a total of 159 reads.

As well as hard news and analysis, there were three regular columns, including the always readable ‘Gadfly’ by the multi award-winning Mike Amos.

A total of another 13 pages carried advertising features on healthcare and ‘schools out’, both trusted old ways of bringing in revenues that, judging by the number of adverts, are still working for the Echo.

In sport, there were another 33 reports on six pages, perfectly respectable for the close season, plus a detailed spread of race cards and results in four-point where necessary.

Including all sections, The Northern Echo’s book was 56-pages on the Wednesday I reviewed it, with what for a quality regional morning I thought was an affordable cover price of 45p.

The Newsquest title sold 44,931 a day in the six months to December 2009, down -7.9pc on the same period in 2008 according to the latest ABCs.

Read Steve’s previous blog posts here

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Steve Dyson worked in the regional press for 20 years, editing weekly, Sunday and daily newspapers in the North East and the Midlands from 2002 until the end of 2009. To contact him, email [email protected].

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Comments

Rob (28/07/2010 09:56:56)
As no decision had been made at the time the paper went to press, two of Steve’s suggested headlines would not have been accurate. Neither ‘Council to eject 100-year-old cousins from home'; or
‘War heroine, aged 92, to be made homeless’ would have been right. Maybe that’s why the editorial team chose not to run with them.

Pedant (28/07/2010 10:09:24)
Yeah but I get his drift – substitute ‘may’ for ‘to’ and both are accurate and sensational. Personally I prefer going for the biggest selling headline rather than calm which can come across as uninteresting. Although the story does sound good, you have to sell it.

Hilary (28/07/2010 10:37:05)
Nary a comment on the missing apostrophe in “old folks homes” (should have been folks’)? It looks to me as though that ‘pos would have bust the line! Tut tut. Sloppy. I bet the subs would blame the typeface (is it Garamond?) – it’s a brute to work with, that one – but still, a 72pt howler!

Lord Lucan (28/07/2010 12:36:08)
I’m with Hilary on the apostrophe.
I know the counter argument is that it looks clumsy and most people don’t know there should be one anyway, but still, if newspapers can’t uphold the rules of English, who can?
And for me, that’s a lot of words on page 1…

AJB (28/07/2010 13:25:05)
As a mere reporter, may I say what a pleasure it is to see a couple of subs standing up for correct English. Gawd bless ye.

Hengist Pod (28/07/2010 13:52:51)
Quite right too. We are indeed the modern day guardians of g
ood grammar, preserving it in a world of rapidly deteriorating standards. Does that make us part of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ I wonder and if so will we get any thanks for it?

EX-SUB PHIL (28/07/2010 14:49:17)
I always enjoy picking up the Echo when I’m in the area but I must say I found this front page worthy to the point of dull.

Barnaby Page (28/07/2010 15:42:39)
I think you could probably argue the case for “old folks home” sans apostrophe, on the analogy of “youth hostel” or “cattle shed”. (Though I hope Durham’s resemble neither.)

jb (02/08/2010 17:17:01)
Am puzzled, as ever, by the assumption that crime stories are what readers want – “I was pleased to see plenty of staff reports from local courts”. Simplistic crime reporting is often the refuge of an understaffed and under-pressure newsroom. It’s easy. A couple of calls to the cops; a bit of freelance copy from the courts. Wham, bam etc. The problem is (though I’m not saying this is the case with the Echo) that too many local news desks have a pavlovian response to crime (SPLASH!!)without really pausing to consider whether their readers are interested in reading about scumbag criminals or ‘glamorous’ gangsters on the front page nearly every day. I’d argue they aren’t. Crime directly affects very few readers. It is of no relevance to the vast majority of readers. They have read these stories a million times before. Crime, arguably, is no longer news in the true sense of the word. The upshot is that if you glance through half of the regional newspapers in the UK today, you could be forgiven for thinking we all live in a Baltimore housing project. It turns readers off. People know crap stuff happens; they don’t want to read about the same old crap happening over and over again… usually at the expense of stories which are far more relevant to their lives: schools, health, jobs, housing, the economy, how to get by on benefits. It would be a sad day for society when a murder did NOT warrant a front page mention at least in a local paper. And there are crime stories which rise above the dross because they are unusual for any number of reasons. But when I read my local paper, it in no way feels like it is a reflection of the city in which I live. That’s because there’s a crime splash most days of the week. And I don’t care about some gangster whose name and reputation is known to a couple of hundred people (most of them cops and journalists)and whose activities are about as relevant to me, my life, my family as a beer hall brawl in berlin. Is it because reporting on other stories and issues in an engaging & accessible way is just too difficult and time-consuming? Maybe. Sorry, rant over…. just don’t get me started on weekly newspapers which think apeing a national tabloid in style and content is the way to go.