Ronnie Gill (Newcastle Evening Chronicle)

Name: meah

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Product:	Newcastle Evening Chronicle
Date:	13/08/02 (1983 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good local coverage, Sport, the Jobs supplement

Disadvantages: National and International news coverage is too thin

Part of the Trinity Mirror stable of newspapers, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle is the biggest-selling daily newspaper in the North East. Although I don't buy it every day, preferring the South Shields Gazette, I've been reading the Chronicle on and off for most of my adult life, along with another 400,000 people in Northumberland, Durham and Tyne & Wear.

Along with The Journal, the Chronicle's morning equivalent, the paper is published every day except Sunday. Copies usually hit the streets of Newcastle in the late morning when the street sellers' cries of "Ronnie Gill" can be heard throughout the city centre. Costing 30p, the paper is reasonable value for money, although as I said earlier it's not something I consider an essential purchase.

Local News makes up by far the biggest section of the newspaper, and usually accounts for around a third of the whole newspaper. Single pages are given over to Britain Tonight and World Tonight, which wrap up breaking news stories from outside the region. Other regular features include ten pages of classifieds, Make A Date (a listings guide covering cinema, clubs, concerts and exhibitions), and three pages of TV Listings which are well laid out and pretty thorough, covering the majority of satellite and cable channels as well as the major digital ones. The Opinions pages are not very original with the 'Your Questions Answered' section and letters taking up the majority of the two pages. Likewise, 'The Chronicle Says' editorial column is a little too parochial for my tastes, all knee jerk shouting and conservative indignation and no influence. 'Vent Your Spleen', a small side column printing readers' emails and recorded telephone messages is more entertaining, although some of the people who contribute obviously don't read newspapers as often as they should.

One of The Chronicle's strong points is it's Features section. Looking Good
and Parent Talk are in Monday's paper, with Crime Beat, Working Life and The Kron, written by schoolchildren, the next day. Mid-week Motoring on Wednesdays is followed by Chronicle Jobs on Thursdays, when 241,000 people buy the paper. Friday Motoring is more in-depth than Wednesday's section and Life, TV Reviews, travel and health, rounds things off on Saturdays.

Like most readers of the paper I usually start at the back with the nine or so pages of Sport. Football, the main reason I buy the paper, takes up at least half of this space with Newcastle United taking the lion's share of coverage. The Chronicle is famous for it's boards announcing big transfer deals, though the paper is wrong more often than not. The best example of this was back in the 1980's when they published a story linking the Brazilian star Socrates with a transfer to St James' Park. Their logic was that Newcastle were in need of a midfielder and Newcastle University had a Philosophy Department that would enable him to keep up his studies. The main Newcastle writer, Alan Oliver, has been in the job for years, although he's not the best with words and he's held in contempt by most supporters. John Gibson, who is a little better, provides comment and general articles and there is also coverage of Non-League football and Sunderland, which aren't really all that different from each other.

Other sports covered in The Chronicle include Rugby Union, with the Falcons covered by the excellent Duncan Madsen, Gateshead Thunder in Rugby League, Durham County Cricket Club, local Athletics and the Newcastle Diamonds speedway team. The Athletics and Rugby Union coverage is good but the rest are covered far better in The Journal. Racing is also done better in the morning paper, but there is a two page spread in The Chronicle with the next day's Card and a few tips.

Overall I'd give The Chronicle three stars. It's strong on Local News and
is the best source for football gossip but it's not as good as The Journal, and there is too much emphasis on Newcastle itself for those of us who live outside of the city.

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