London’s famed Evening Standard to end daily print edition after 200 years

London: The Evening Standard, a fixture on the streets of the UK’s capital for nearly 200 years, will scrap its daily print edition, blaming better internet coverage on the Underground and a shift to working from home.

In a memo to staff at the business, which is co-owned by Russia-born businessman Lord Evgeny Lebedev, the London freesheet said on Wednesday it planned to consult staff and external stakeholders on the launch of a weekly newspaper later this year that would “replace the daily publication”.

The newspaper’s management informed staff that it would drop its daily print edition and become a weekly publication. Credit: Getty

The newspaper, famously banned by Benito Mussolini in 1936 for a cartoon by the legendary David Low that incurred the Italian dictator’s wrath, built its reputation in the 19th century for covering conflicts such as the American Civil War.

It was, for years, the first newspaper to report the deaths of British monarchs and the resignation of prime ministers. At the height of its powers, the Standard published six editions daily – including the Metro and News Extra editions in the morning, the City Prices edition at lunchtime and the West End Final edition in the evening.

The paper was bought by businessman and former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny in 2009, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has struggled for direction after being hammered by a collapse in commuting and a deep advertising downturn during lockdowns.

A vendor prepares to distribute copies of the Evening Standard newspaper in London, England. Credit: Getty

The younger Lebedev’s stewardship of the title is blamed by numerous past and present Standard journalists for its demise because of his use of its pages to promote his pet causes and, often, himself.

In October, print circulation dropped below 300,000 for the first time since it became a free newspaper in 2009. Its circulation peaked at more than 900,000 in 2016, but it has lost £84.5 million during the last six years.

Surging inflation and print costs have also hurt the publication’s bottom line. The paper, which is handed out at railway stations and street corners around the capital, has shrunk to an average of about 30 pages, down from roughly 70 a decade ago.

Shorter commuting weeks and the spread of Wi-Fi on its readers’ Underground routes made “evolution a prerequisite of viability”, the memo said, adding that “the substantial losses accruing from the current operations are not sustainable”.

Bosses told staff: “A proposed new weekly newspaper would replace the daily publication, allowing for more in-depth analysis of the issues that matter to Londoners, and serve them in a new and relevant way by celebrating the best London has to offer, from entertainment guides to lifestyle, sports, culture and news and the drumbeat of life in the world’s greatest city.”

Launched in its original incarnation in 1827, its national influence was forged in the 1930s and 1940s, through a series of thundering editorials by future Labour Party leader Michael Foot that savaged the slow pace of rearmament in the face of Hitler’s aggression. The reputations of former prime ministers such as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, more than 80 years on, have yet to recover.

The Standard was also home to some of Britain’s most famous writers, including novelist George Orwell, who penned his famous 1946 essay The Moon Under Water in which he described his perfect pub for the paper. Its other writers included one of Britain’s most-loved poet laureates, John Betjeman, and Harold Nicolson, an author of more than 125 books, including political essays, travel accounts, and mystery novels.

The newspaper said that although the “process may be unsettling”, its goal was to replicate the success of sister title The Independent, which it said had experienced “enduring growth” in readership and commercial success since it became the first and, to date, the only UK national newspaper to go online-only in 2016.

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