My mate works in the jobcentre in Newcastle and he told me last year about dealing with a bloke who'd worked for the Chronicle. Since Thompson House closed a couple of years ago, the Chronicle's staff in Newcastle is only a couple of hundred based up near the Haymarket and the editor in chief is based in York with 25 other papers to oversee. It's why it's declined the way it has, and sadly the same thing will apply to the Echo. Johnson press are probably the same, with editorial decisions not being made by local people, losing local connections and quick, easy naff articles getting printed.