Return To Summer 1996 Index
Return To Summer 1996 Index
The Daily Echo, Southampton's regional paper has just left town. Soon to boast some of the most modern printing works in Europe, The Echo has just taken up residence in prestigious new headquarters at Nursling, on the edge of the city at a cost of nearly £38 million.
To keep the vast army of Southampton ex-patriots who regularly log in to The New Millennium informed of such momentous goings-on, we visited the new Echo Building, where we had a cup of tea and a chat with to the two Assistant Editors, Keith Hamilton and Carl Tussler.
Keith Hamilton - Assistant Editor, Daily Echo
Journalists were among the first of the staff who moved over to the purpose built news and editorial area in April. Despite the enormous upheaval, the whole news room is deeply proud of having never missed an edition,
"You see," Keith explained, "Newspapers aren't like chocolate biscuit factories. If the machine that produces the biscuits breaks down you can mend it. Once it's fixed you can run it a little bit faster and catch up with production. If you miss an edition, it's lost and gone forever. There's no use writing twice the amount the next day hoping people will read it because they won't. It's old news, so it's vital that we don't miss an edition!"
Nice press, what about the net?
As the summer progresses, 74 trucks will arrive bearing parts for the massive new printing plant, that will not merely cope with the demands of the paper itself, but also handle a large volume of contract printing.
Carl Tussler - also Assistant Editor, Daily Echo
Carl told us, "As a company, we look towards the future, this is why we moved here. We've got a very complex, high-tech press, we really are breaking new ground. We're going to full page output directly to plate. People want information these days and traditionally we're here to supply it."
Spaghetti Junction - Daily Echo computer system
In the middle to long term The Echo sees itself broadly as being an information provider - not just of printed information. The Echo's dipping its toe into the murky waters of electronic dissemination of information, including flirting with the internet. We asked them if they felt printed word has a future?
Carl told us, "Certainly in the short to middle it has. In the very long term things may change."
The printed word will see us out!" Keith joked.
News Room - Daily Echo
He continued, "Sure, we'll print but we'll also look at other ways of doing things, because if we don't other people will. This is why we're looking at Internet links with the University and all sorts of other things. We could easily sit back and just print newspapers, because we know the business inside out, we've been doing it for 200 years, but we can't just do that. If you don't look forward, you're almost going backwards. While everybody else moves ahead.
Stick in the air
Keith Hamilton is also something of a local historian. We asked him to give us a potted history of the Echo, including the bizarre tale of the way one of its early owners decided on where to locate his newspaper business.
Keith told us, "For 188 years we were based in and around Above Bar in Southampton. In that time we've occupied a number of buildings. It really was established properly in 1908. The Echo is a family company controlled very much by the Perkins Family. In 1908 they wanted to expand the building and the then chairman Walter Perkins couldn't make up his mind whether to do it Above Bar or Below Bar in the High Street Southampton."
"So Walter Perkins, took a stroll down the High Street with his fellow directors. He decided that he would let his walking stick make the decision for him. Keith explained, "He chucked his walking stick up in the air and it landed pointing North!"
He Chuckled, "Consequently, the building was built in Above Bar! It was purely the way his walking stick landed that determined where the building was built and in fact we still have the walking stick in our archives!"
Naturally, its move to Nursling was more scientifically determined, and costed!
Blitz
During the second world war, Southampton was bombed extensively. In November 1940 for two nights there was a concentrated blitz over Southampton. The Echo building in Above Bar was totally destroyed.
Keith said, "A lot of our files were destroyed and we lost a lot of our glass negatives, although we salvaged roughly 3½ tons of these. The building was lost and we moved to temporary accommodation in Portland Street. In 1955 we moved to 45 Above Bar - the most well known of our buildings. And we were there until April. It was a lovely building for 1955. It was state of the art for the time."
Prime Site
Which indeed it was, full of walnut and marble and frosted glass - a classic piece of fifties architecture. However what the Paper needs today it is totally outdated and as printing technology changed it became less and less workable. However the old Above Bar building is on a prime development site.
Keith told us, "The site at Above Bar is perfectly located to link between the High Street and the new development at Western Esplanade, the two happily married, so the developers were able to acquire Above Bar and we were able to develop out here. It was coincidental that we also needed a new press."
Now we shall follow developments at the Echo with the keenest of interest, and wish everyone at Nursling all the best...
