News Guardian

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The News Guardian is a free weekly newspaper covering three main areas of North Tyneside, a metropolitan district in north east England. It serves Whitley Bay, North Shields and Wallsend with news, sport, entertainment as well as regular property and motoring supplements.

The News Guardian series is owned by Sunderland based Northeast Press Limited, a subsidiary of Johnston Press Ltd. The current News Guardian is a product of three newspaper mergers, The Whitley Bay Guardian (formerly known as the Seaside Chronicle), the Shields Weekly News and the Wallsend News. It has a distribution of around 68,000 copies.

It has a proud tradition of developing new journalistic talent and is affiliated to the National Council for the Training of Journalists. Reporters are sent to college on a block release of around 20 weeks before returning to the newspaper to gain more experience. Editor, Ross Weeks, is an NCTJ examiner.

Over the years the newspaper has reported some of the biggest stories to hit the north east including the Meadow Well Riots on September 9 1991, the decline of the ship yards on the Tyne, and the long running police investigation into the Sara Cameron murder - the 21 year old Finnish student found dead in Whitley Bay on April 28 2001. At the time the newspaper offered a reward as part of its coverage. The newspaper won several awards for its coverage. Nick Martin, a reporter on the newspaper for three years, won three major awards for his approach to the story. Despite its undisputed heritage, it has a reputation, particularly among its regular correspondents in the letters pages, as being incredibly reactionary and almost entirely opposed to the notion of change. It has upheld an almost decade-long opposition to the development of Whitley Bay Sea-front, resulting in its dereliction even to this very day. i The newspaper is produced from its offices in Whitley Bay. Around 6 reporters, two sub editors, two photographers, a newsroom assistant and the editor contribute to editorial content and a team of advertising sales managers ensure advertising revenue.