The Evening Standard is a local free daily newspaper in London that was formerly known as The Standard. It was purchased by Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev in October 2009 and became a free newspaper, doubling its circulation. Emily Sheffield was the editor from July 2020 until October 2021.
The Standard newspaper was founded in 1827 by barrister Stanley Lees Giffard. It became a morning paper in 1857 and the Evening Standard was published in 1859. The paper gained popularity for its detailed foreign news, leading to an increase in circulation. By the end of the 19th century, the evening edition had become more popular than the morning one.
In 1904, C. Arthur Pearson acquired both The Standard and the Evening Standard newspapers. In 1915, Edward Hulton purchased the Evening Standard from Davison Dalziel. Hulton also introduced the gossip column Londoner’s Diary to the paper.
In 1923, Lord Beaverbrook bought Hulton’s newspapers but sold them to Lord Rothermere. The Evening Standard became a Conservative paper and was upstaged by The Evening News in the 1960s. It published the comic strip Modesty Blaise and stopped publishing on Saturdays in 1974.
In 1980, Express Newspapers merged the Standard with Associated Newspapers’ Evening News. This new paper was called the New Standard until 1985 when Associated Newspapers bought out the remaining stake and it became The Standard. In 1987, The Standard briefly revived the Evening News to compete with London Daily News but reabsorbed it later that year. Until 2009, The Standard included a by-line “Incorporating the ‘Evening News’.”
In 2009, Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev acquired 64 percent ownership of the Evening Standard for £1. Justin Shaw and Geordie Greig had previously purchased 12 percent of the paper while Associated Newspapers retained the remaining 24 percent.
In November 2009, it was announced that the London Evening Standard would stop printing its midday edition. From then on, the first edition was the West End Final, available from 2 pm. This edition had a print run of 600,000 copies and ended at 3 am starts for journalists. As a result of this change, 20 people lost their jobs.
The London Evening Standard used to print three editions each weekday. These were “News Extra”, “West End Final”, and “Late Night Final”. The circulation increased to 900,000 in January 2010.
In May 2009, the London Evening Standard launched a poster campaign featuring the word “Sorry” in its masthead font. The campaign was designed to apologize for past editorial approaches and was criticized by ex-editor Veronica Wadley. On the same day, the paper relaunched with a new layout and gave away 650,000 free copies.
In October 2009, the Standard became a free newspaper with a circulation of 700,000 in central London. In February 2010, a paid-for version became available in suburban areas for 20p. The newspaper won awards at the Media Week and London Press Club Press Awards in 2010 and 2011 respectively.