The Standard (London newspaper)
The London Standard, formerly the Evening Standard and originally The Standard, is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free of charge in London, England. It is printed in tabloid format, and also has an online edition.
In October 2009, after being bought by Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, the paper ended a 180-year history of paid circulation and multiple editions every day, and became a free newspaper publishing a single print edition every weekday, doubling its circulation as part of a change in its business plan.
On 29 May 2024, the newspaper announced that it would reduce print publication to once weekly, after nearly 200 years of daily publication, as it had become unprofitable. Daily publication ended on 19 September 2024. The first weekly edition was published on 26 September 2024 under the new name of The London Standard.
History
From 1827 to 2009
The newspaper was founded by barrister Stanley Lees Giffard on 21 May 1827 as The Standard. The early owner of the paper was Charles Baldwin. Under the ownership of James Johnstone, The Standard became a morning paper from 29 June 1857. The Evening Standard was published from 11 June 1859. The Standard gained eminence for its detailed foreign news, notably its reporting of events of the American Civil War, the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, all contributing to a rise in circulation. By the end of the 19th century, the evening edition eclipsed its morning counterpart.Both The Standard and the Evening Standard were acquired by C. Arthur Pearson in 1904. In May 1915, Edward Hulton bought the Evening Standard from Davison Dalziel. Dalziel had bought both papers in 1910, and closed The Standard, the morning paper, in 1916. Hulton introduced the gossip column Londoner's Diary, originally billed as "a column written by gentlemen for gentlemen".
In 1923, Lord Beaverbrook, owner of the Daily Express, bought Hulton's newspapers, although he sold them shortly thereafter to the Daily Mails owner Lord Rothermere, with the exception of the Standard. It became a staunchly Conservative paper, harshly attacking Labour in 1945 in a high-profile campaign that backfired. In the 1960s, the paper was upstaged by The Evening News, which sold more than 1 million copies nightly. During the decade, the paper also began to publish the comic strip Modesty Blaise, which bolstered its sales throughout the 1970s. The Evening Standard ceased publishing on Saturdays on 30 November 1974, when it still produced six editions daily. In the 1960s, the paper's political editor Robert Carvel was granted a morning briefing by prime minister Harold Wilson and it had its own correspondents in Paris and Washington.
In 1980, Express Newspapers merged the Standard with Associated Newspapers' Evening News in a Joint Operating Agreement. The new paper was known as the New Standard until 1985, when Associated Newspapers bought out the remaining stake, turning it into The Standard. In 1987 the Evening News was briefly revived to compete with Robert Maxwell's London Daily News, but was reabsorbed into The Standard later that year, after the collapse of Maxwell's paper. In 1988 the Evening Standard included the by-line "Incorporating the 'Evening News, which remained until the paper's sale in 2009.
Lebedev takeover
On 21 January 2009, the Russian businessman and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny Lebedev, who in 2010 went on to own The Independent, agreed to acquire control of the Evening Standard for £1 for 64 per cent ownership. A few years earlier, 12 per cent of the paper had been sold to Justin Shaw and Geordie Greig. Associated Newspapers retained the remaining 24 per cent.May 2009 relaunch
In May 2009, the newspaper launched a series of poster ads, each of which prominently featured the word "Sorry" in the paper's then-masthead font. These ads offered various apologies for past editorial approaches, such as "Sorry for losing touch". None of the posters mentioned the Evening Standard by name, although they featured the paper's Eros logo. Ex-editor Veronica Wadley criticised the "Pravda-style" campaign saying it humiliated the paper's staff and insulted its readers.The campaign was designed by McCann Erickson. Also in May 2009, the paper relaunched as the London Evening Standard with a new layout and masthead, marking the occasion by giving away 650,000 free copies on the day, and refreshed its sports coverage.
October 2009: freesheet
After a long history of paid circulation, on 12 October 2009, the Standard became a free newspaper, with free circulation of 700,000, limited to central London. In February 2010, a paid-for circulation version became available in suburban areas of London for 20p. The newspaper won the "Media Brand of the Year" and the "Grand Prix Gold" awards at the Media Week awards in October 2010. The judges said: " quite simply... stunned the market. Not just for the act of going free, but because editorial quality has been maintained, circulation has almost trebled and advertisers have responded favourably. Here is a media brand restored to health." The Standard also won the daily newspaper of the year award at the London Press Club Awards in May 2011.In November 2009, it was announced that the London Evening Standard would drop its morning "News Extra" edition from 4 January 2010. From then on, the first edition was the "West End Final", available from 2 pm. One edition of 600,000 copies would be printed starting at 12:30 pm, ending 5.30 am starts for journalists and the previous deadline of 7 am for the first edition. Twenty people were expected to lose their jobs as a result.
There were often considerable changes between editions in the front-page lead and the following news pages, including the Londoner's Diary, though features and reviews stayed the same. In January 2010, circulation was increased to 900,000.
May 2010: mobile application
The Evening Standard launched a mobile app with US app developer Handmark in May 2010. The range of apps was updated in 2015.March 2018: redesign
In March 2018, editor George Osborne initiated a redesign of the paper, which included dropping the "London" from its title in a signal of the paper's ambition to have greater national and international influence. The paper also introduced more colourful "signposting" for different sections such as news, comment, and business, as it was noted by Osborne that it had not been "easy" to find them inside the paper previously. The masthead was also redesigned with a new font, and emojis were added to the paper's five-day weather forecast.May 2018: financial sponsorship
In May 2018, James Cusick of openDemocracy alleged the newspaper had been providing favourable news coverage to companies, including Uber and Google, in exchange for financial sponsorship.June 2019: Job cuts
In June 2019, the Evening Standard announced job cuts. By the end of 2019, the company reported a pre-tax loss of £13.6 million. In August 2020, the paper announced a further 115 job cuts in order to save the company.2024: from daily to weekly, with redundancies
Before the COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020, the Evening Standard's daily circulation was about 800,000. By mid-2024, it had dropped below 300,000. The newspaper lost nearly £20 million in 2023.On 29 May 2024, the newspaper announced that it would go from a daily to weekly print publication as it was unprofitable, and become a digital first publication. The newspaper had dropped from about 70 to 30 pages in the preceding decade. The change was made by Lebedev under pressure by Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel, who has owned a 30% stake in the Evening Standards parent company since 2018.
On 14 June 2024, the newspaper announced it would eliminate 150 jobs. The redundancies included 70 editorial workers, 40 office workers and 45 workers from the paper's printing and distribution operations at Broxbourne. Lebedev proposed to make statutory minimum payments plus £1,000, capped at £21,000, to those made redundant.
On 29 July 2024, the last Friday and Monday editions had been printed, and on Thursday 19 September 2024 the last daily format edition was printed. The weekly edition was published on Thursdays from 26 September 2024 under the new name of The London Standard.
Editorial style
From July 2020 to October 2021, the newspaper's editor was Emily Sheffield, sister of Samantha Cameron, who took over from the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who became editor-in-chief. As editor he had replaced Sarah Sands who, in turn, had replaced Geordie Greig following his departure to The Mail on Sunday in March 2012. Veronica Wadley was the newspaper's editor between 2002 and 2009. Max Hastings was editor from 1996 until he retired in 2002.The Evening Standard, a regional newspaper, emphasises London-centred news, covering building developments, property prices, traffic schemes, politics, the congestion charge and, in the Londoner's Diary page, gossip on the social scene, and also covers significant national and international news. It also occasionally runs campaigns on London issues that national newspapers do not cover in detail.
It has a tradition of providing arts coverage. Its best known former art critic, Brian Sewell, was known for his acerbic view of conceptual art, Britart and the Turner Prize and his views attracted controversy and criticism in the art world. He has been described as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic".