Evening Standard

The newspaper was founded by barrister Stanley Lees Giffard on 21 May 1827 as The Standard.[5] 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 (1861–1865), the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, all contributing to a rise in circulation.[6] 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.[7] In May 1915, Edward Hulton purchased the Evening Standard from Davison Dalziel.[8] Dalziel had purchased both papers in 1910,[9] and closed The Standard, the morning paper, in 1916.[7] 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 Mail's 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 over 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 Nov 1974, when it still produced six editions daily.[10]

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.

On 21 January 2009, the Russian businessman and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny Lebedev, owners of The Independent, agreed to acquire control of the Evening Standard for £1 for 64 percent ownership.[1][11] A few years earlier, 12 percent of the paper had been sold to Justin Shaw and Geordie Greig. Associated Newspapers keeps the remaining 24 percent.

In November 2009, it was announced that the London Evening Standard would drop its midday "News Extra" edition from 4 January 2010. From then on, the first edition was the West End Final, available from 2 pm.[12] One edition of 600,000 copies would be printed starting at 12:30 pm, ending 3 am starts for journalists and the previous deadline of 9 am for the first edition. Twenty people were expected to lose their jobs as a result.[12]

Previously there were three editions each weekday, excluding Bank holidays. The first, "News Extra", went to print at 10:00 am and was available around 11 am in central London, slightly later in more outlying areas. A second edition, "West End Final", went to print at 3 pm, and the "Late Night Final" went to print at 5 pm and was available in central London from about 6 pm. There were often considerable changes between editions, particularly with the front-page lead and following few pages, including the Londoner's Diary, though features and reviews stayed the same.[13] In January 2010, circulation was increased to 900,000.[14]

London Evening Standard dispensers at Sainsbury's supermarket, 2017

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".[15] 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.[16] 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,[17] and refreshed its sports coverage.[18]

After a long history of paid circulation, on 12 October 2009 the Standard became a free newspaper,[4][19] 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 (although many places sell it for 50p).[20][21] 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, "[the Standard has] 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."[22] The Standard also won the daily newspaper of the year award at the London Press Club Press Awards in May 2011.[23]

The Evening Standard launched a mobile app with US app developer Handmark in May 2010.[24] The range of apps was updated in 2015.[25]

In March 2018, editor George Osborne initiated a redesign of the paper, which featured a dropping of the 'London' from the paper's title in a signal of the paper's ambition to have greater national and international influence.[26] The paper also introduced more colourful "sign-posting" 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.[26] The masthead was also redesigned with a new font, and emojis were added to the paper's five-day weather forecast.[27]

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.[28][29]

In June 2019, the Evening Standard announced job cuts.[30] 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.[31]