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

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:

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