The newspaper was founded in 1873 as the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette.
Its founders were Samuel Storey, Edward Backhouse, Edward Temperley Gourley, Charles Palmer, Richard Ruddock, Thomas Glaholm and Thomas Scott Turnbull.
The inaugural edition of the Echo was printed in Press Lane, Sunderland on 22 December 1873; 1,000 copies were produced and sold for a halfpenny each
It was Sunderland's first daily local newspaper, and is today published from Monday to Saturday, for 75p.