Chronicle and Journal host networking event in Newcastle newsroom as Thomson House sold
A networking lunch to celebrate the Great North Run event has been hosted by ChronicleLive and The Journal in its Newcastle office. Guests also heard from Eldon Square, where the newsroom teams are based, about its major plans for transformation of the shopping centre.
Guests included North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, Newcastle MPs Chi Onwurah and Catherine McKinnell, Police and Crime Commissioner Susan Dungworth, Northumbria Police Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine, Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley, Lord Lieutenant Lucy Winskell, and Newcastle United CEO Darren Eales, who attended along with academic and business leaders from across the North East. Helen Dalby, audience and content director for Reach’s North East, Humber and Yorkshire titles, welcomed guests to the event alongside regional sales director Guy Keeble.
The event was sponsored by Eldon Square, landlords for Reach’s North East hub which is based at Eldon Court in Newcastle city centre. Pete Cooper, director for Eldon Square, spoke to guests of the shopping centre’s major transformation plans and the jobs and opportunities they would bring to the city.
Helen said: “It was terrific to welcome so many distinguished guests on the eve of the brilliant Great North Run weekend of celebrations. The newsroom was buzzing with conversations about how we can all work together to take advantage of the opportunities Newcastle and the wider region have at this critical time for our future growth and success.
“My team and I feel passionately about the role we can play in convening people to have positive conversations about our region’s future - and crucially, the role we can play as the city’s biggest news website and longest established newspapers in telling our story to the world.
“All of us in the room on Friday were united in the belief that the North East is the best place in the country to live, work, play and study - it was great to discuss how we can best support that message and the story of our wider region. What better time to do this than in advance of the brilliant Great North Run, a flagship event for the area.”
Reach redesigned its Newcastle office space in April of this year, reconfiguring the newsroom and creating a podcast studio for its award-winning Everything is Black and White NUFC podcast, and collaboration zone which was used in May and July to host mayoral and general election hustings events.
Guy Keeble said: “We’re very proud that the ChronicleLive and Journal teams are based here in the centre of the city and it felt like the perfect time of year to welcome leaders from numerous sectors across the region and share in all of the opportunities that lie ahead.
“What matters to our news team, matters to our commercial team, and it was clear that those goals and aspirations of growth and prosperity for the wider region were echoed by the guests in the room amongst a real spirit of partnership.”
The office also houses the Chronicle Sunshine Fund, a charity which funds equipment for children with disabilities, life-limiting and terminal illnesses in the North East. Helen Dalby is chair of the board of trustees for the charity, which is approaching its centenary in 2028 and appointed a new head of charity, David Wilson, in May.
The event coincided with Reach’s completion of the sale of Thomson House, the former manufacturing site and office base of the Chronicle and Journal which closed in 2018 when the newsroom team moved to its current Eldon Square base.
The building has been sold to Scotland-based leisure and property firm, Scotsman Group, which operates a range of tenures and has a successful history of area regeneration and placemaking.