The new-look Liverpool Echo hit the streets today with a pledge of less crime in the paper and more coverage of Everton FC.
The revamp, which includes a magazine-style front page, went on sale this morning following editor Alastair Machray’s month-long #TellAli project, which aimed to find out what readers want from their paper.
As well as the changes in coverage of crime and football, it will aim to present a “more positive” image of Liverpool, reflecting the “huge success story” it says the city has become.
The redesign will see images become more dominant on pages alongside a brighter colour scheme. The paper retains its cover price of 65p.
Today’s edition of the new look Liverpool Echo
Said Alastair: “We set out by asking ourselves what the people of Liverpool really want from their Echo.
“The way our readers consume media has changed dramatically since the turn of the century, and we know the Echo has to adapt to survive.
“Our design and reporting structures came from an era when the city was down on its luck and was based on telling lots of bad news stories.
“Twenty first century Liverpool has evolved into a huge success story. The city has so much to offer, and the Echo needs to reflect that.
Publisher Trinity Mirror said six major themes had emerged from the listening exercise all of which had been incorporated into the new-look paper.
Readers wanted less crime news, more reporting on things to do in the city, improved Everton FC coverage, a positive image of the city, a paper that looks as bright and as modern as Liverpool feels, and finally for the paper to tighten up on mistakes.
Respondents to the #TellAli project included the chief constable of Merseyside, who told the paper it would “struggle” to fill its pages without police help, while comedian and actor Neil Fitzmaurice also criticised the amount of crime stories in the paper.
A questionnaire undertaken by readers revealed 73pc felt the Echo’s crime stories were “sometimes a bit over-the-top”, while 58pc felt the paper was “a bit old fashioned and stuck in the past”.
Scores of Everton fans also contacted Alastair to share their grievance at a perceived bias towards city rivals Liverpool FC when it comes to sports coverage.
Calls to return printing operations from Oldham to Liverpool, where they moved in 2007, were also addressed by Alastair in an editorial in which he warned readers that spreading “myths” about the paper’s production could put jobs at risk.
Alastair added: “The #TellAli campaign told us all we needed to know with thousands of people helping us shape the newspaper’s future.
“As a journalist of 36 years, I was touched by the number of people who showed they really cared about their paper.
“It’s been a fantastic effort by everyone involved and I’m delighted that the new Echo is hitting the streets today.
“The work doesn’t stop here though, the Echo will continue to evolve to reader’s tastes and to the modern, magnificent Liverpool we live in.
The previous Liverpoool Echo front page design, from an edition published in March.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
Re-arrange the following into well-known phase or saying:
fiddles while Nero Rome burning is
Report this comment
I had no idea the Liverpool Echo was looking at making changes.
Report this comment
Is the redesign the answer to the major problem of sales declines throughout the regional newspaper industry?
Report this comment
Good luck on the new edition, I hope it leads to the creation of many more jobs for journalists, with a distinct preference for older journalists who have been made redundant.
Report this comment
Bad time to relaunch – why do it in mid-summer when people are away!!
Brainless. Start of the football season would have been better.
Hope it works for them, but probably too late.
Report this comment
STRINGER: What are the options when you got an inferior product in an aggressive marketplace?
LUCAS: Well, if you have a large share of the market, you can buy up the competition.
STRINGER: And if you don’t?
LUCAS: Reduce price to increase market share.
STRINGER: That assumes low overhead.
LUCAS: Of course, otherwise, you operate at a loss, and worse, as your prices drop, your product eventually loses consumer credibility. You know, the new C.E.O. of Worldcom was faced with this very problem. The company was linked to one of the largest fraud cases in history, so he proposed–
STRINGER: … To change the name?
LUCAS: Exactly.
Report this comment
See the main reason sales are down is still there – the 65p in the top corner.
And the logo is still red – the Evertonians will be moaning.
Report this comment
Love it – sounds just like the same brand of fake positivity from when I worked at another Trinity Mirror title in the West Midlands 15 years ago.
No crime reporter so you had three of the best operators in the newsroom basically all doing the job and hardly helping the ‘problem’.
Not every splash has to be a crime or court story (and the MEN is a worse offender by far than the Echo) but this much is true – readers lie like fun when asked how much salacious stuff they want in their paper so they don’t come out of the focus group looking like a bloodthirsty misfit.
One of the main things affecting (some) of our regional reads is the ratio of deskbound news and digital gurus to actual reporters and specialists who can give a well-rounded news list. But that’s a lost cause surely?
Report this comment
I’m pretty much of the opinion that it just doesn’t matter what changes are made in print under group ownership, there are too many mouths to feed for it to be successful. I’m even more sceptical about ‘listening’ to the readers, I believe in a silent majority who won’t respond. The respondents basically have to be readers or very recently former readers, and the more vocal section of these groups of people. That’s the problem with ‘listening’ – you’re listening to those who like the sound of their own voices, have some sort of vested interest or are just media savvy. Are they truly representative? I doubt it
Report this comment
Another suggestion for a re-branding…let’s rename this site glasshalfempty.com so all the miserable people who comment here can feel vindicated and at home
Report this comment
Yes it is depressing the number of people who come on this site and moan. We all know the industry is going through huge changes, some, admittedly, self inflicted.
But every time a big company, such as Trinity or JP, or a start up newspaper announces they are trying something new or different, this site is littered by comments from bad mouthers who will slag off their plans but who, themselves, are devoid of the ambition or ‘get on with it’ gene. They probably moan about that too.
Report this comment
It’s funny, one of the first things that’s drummed into you as a journalist is to keep the words simple because the reader has the attention span of a clothes peg, yet now they’re the foremost authority on making good papers.
The Tories won the election and now people are out there moaning about being hard up, that’s the British public you’re dealing with here.
Report this comment
I showed the front page to a lady who has absolutely no connection with any media.
She asked: “Is the headline so massive because they are short of news to fill the pages with?”
Will this be a common perception among readers?
Report this comment
Good luck Alastair & team. You should be applauded for the novel research approach and for having the will to want to engage with your readers. Hopefully they will like the changes and become advocates in order to attract new readers too. Better to have tried something than die wondering, which would appear to be the MO of most of the bitter and twisted ‘commentators’ on here.
Report this comment
It’s not being bitter and twisted, Long John Silver, it’s like watching the Titanic slowly sink beneath the waves, with all the associated metaphors. I’d rather it sank quickly, and it be replaced with something smaller and much more seaworthy. I’ll stop this now.
Report this comment
I suspect Long John Silver works for the Echo and doesn’t have a scouse accent.
Report this comment
I, for one, wish Alastair and his team every success. Like all regional newspapers they face the huge twin challenges of : –
1) Changing readership trends and migration to on-line news.
2) The collapse of the old business model that saw a well-resourced newsroom largely funded by classified advertising revenues that have now collapsed.
If it was just about ownership and management structures there would be other titles bucking current trends and we could all learn from them.
I’m not aware of any.
I was lucky enough to edit the Liverpool Echo from 1989 to 2000 and I hope and believe it has a fighting chance of migrating to a successful on-line title in time.
Liverpool is a fabulous city to engage with and Alastair is a newsman to his fingertips.
Report this comment
Can we not have a blue and white masthead with a red liverbird?
Report this comment
It will either go down as one of the most brilliant ideas in the history of regional newspapers, or one of the most disastrous.
Still, if the latter, better to be shot down in a blaze of glory than quietly wither away.
Report this comment
Of course, there are some that would say that supporting Everton is a crime!
Report this comment
“readers lie like fun when asked how much salacious stuff they want in their paper so they don’t come out of the focus group looking like a bloodthirsty misfit”
Ha ha, well said. Nobody is going to tell you “ooh, yes, I really like reading about rape and murder…can we have more please?” But it’s the truth. Humans love depravity and filth. That will never change.
Report this comment
If it bleeds, it leads.
Report this comment