Personalities

John Hyslop Bell Journalist, newspaper owner and editor, later Coroner for Stockton-on-Tees. Born in Scotland, he made his name as proprietor and editor of the South Durham Mercury in Hartlepool. In 1870, at the request of the powerful Pease family in Darlington, he founded The Northern Echo, ostensibly to counter the rhetoric of rival papers...

William Hall Burnett Journalist, newspaper owner and editor, born in Stokesley in 1841. The the son of Hannah Burnett, an agricultural labourer, Burnett's talents as a writer and public speaker were recognised at a young age. By the age of 10 he was a popular elocutionist, and by age 13, he was self-taught shorthand writer and correspondent for the York Herald.

Hugh Gilzean Reid Journalist, newspaper owner and editor. Born on 11 August 1836 , Reid was the son a Scottish crofter and shoemaker. His early education was cut short when he began work on a local farm at the age of eight but when he was sixteen he broke free from this rural poverty to work in an art-printing and publishing house in Aberdeen...

Thomas Purvis Ritzema Journalist and newspaper owner, born at South Shields in 1852. The son of a boot and shoemaker, Ritzema began his newspaper career as a printer-compositor in the office of the Shields Gazette where, through practical experience of newspaper production, he aquired a special genius for newspaper management.

Henry King Spark Entrepreneur, local politician, newspaper owner and editor, born in Cumbria. The son of a coal miner, he was raised and educated by his mother, a strict Methodist schoolteacher. After serving an apprenticeship as a print compositor, he found employment, in 1847, on the staff of the newly-founded Darlington & Stockton Times.

W.T. Stead Journalist, editor and publisher, born in the village of Embleton in Northumberland. The son of a Congregational minister, he was brought up in Howden-on-Tyne and educated at home by his father. In 1870, he began submitting articles to the fledgling Darlington newspaper, The Northern Echo and, a year later, aged just 22, became editor.