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This has been a truly remarkable week in the 136 year history of the Liverpool ECHO, writes Alastair Machray.

On Monday we launched our month-long #TellAli survey of ECHO readers in dramatic fashion – with our first ever blank front page.

This reflected a blank canvas as the ECHO embarks on a major programme of change in a bid to truly reflect a city that has changed so much in recent years.

And your response so far has delighted me.

Seventy questionnaires were returned within one hour of that blank page hitting the shops and going online, and we’ve had hundreds more since, while the tweets tumbled in as if tipped off the back of a dumper truck.

I asked Liverpool to #TellAli and I’m getting well and truly told!

We are at an early stage of the campaign, but here are some of the main headlines and just one or two of your comments.

TOO MUCH CRIME

You say we’ve become over-reliant on crime and are dragging down the mood of readers.

Mark Loudon (@markloudon) tweeted a picture of our (previously) blank front page, which he filled in with the headline YOBS STAB YOUR NAN HORROR

Your point was well-made, Mark!

TELL US WHAT’S ON

You say you want more information about things to do. It’s all happening in Liverpool and we need to realise that and report it.

NO MORE “OLD NEWS”

You say you’ve read it on phones and tablets and are telling us to report what’s GOING to happen, and to get under the surface of stories that matter.

TOO LITTLE EVERTON FC

In the past, we have been accused of being the Red ECHO and the Blue ECHO – at the same time! But now, we seem to be upsetting many more Blues than Reds.

Reds we have heard from this week have told us they are generally happy with our football coverage, while Blues have told us they are generally unhappy – not so much with the content as with its placement.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am a Newcastle United fan so don’t need anyone telling me about trophy droughts or suffering! But seriously, if there is a Red/Blue imbalance we need to deal with it immediately.

TOO MANY SECOND RATE “CELEBRITIES”

In a tweet that was typical, Ben (@liverpoolrover) took me to task for a story about Liverpool bit part player Fabio Borini and fiancee Erin O’Neill sharing some pictures ahead of their Italian wedding. Ben wrote: “This sort of trashy non-news is why your paper is now seen as a comic! #garbage”

I asked Ben if it was just reserve players that irked, or all celebrities. He told me it was both, explaining he didn’t find reserve players or soap actors/reality TV stars/WAGS very newsworthy. Previous research has told us there is a demand for celebrity news, but it seems we need to look again at whether the people we write about – or are thinking of writing about – can truly be classed as celebrities.

THE “OLDHAM” ECHO

Many people remain very unhappy that we took the difficult – but unavoidable – decision to move our printing operation to Oldham seven years ago. But I have made it clear this week that our team is in Old Hall Street – some 450 of us. We are in Liverpool and here to stay.

It is touching in the extreme that so many people care enough to contribute their thoughts. Even many of the most cutting have been at pains to say the ECHO means a lot to them.

A colleague, even older than I, suggested it wouldn’t work at any other regional paper. That it was pure Liverpool.

Thanks for your responses so far – and please, keep on telling me what you think and what you want from your ECHO.