The Echo's plight is part of a wider malaise in local journalism in Britain. If I look in Ghent, where I live, we have 3 local daily newspapers based in a city of 250,000. They aren't printing gossip and clickbait, they do serious journalism and in depth reporting on local politics and issues as well as reflective pieces on national and international stories.
Compare that to the Echo who treat their readers like idiots, copy and paste tweets from celebrities as not only quotes but as actual stories, never hold their local representatives to account and who's entire business model is to pitch at a certain football club's fans. They also have the worst website known to man.