Shorter commuting weeks and the spread of WiFi on its readers’ routes made “evolution a prerequisite of viability”, the memo said, adding that “the substantial losses accruing from the current operations are not sustainable”.
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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 was 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 include Britain’s beloved Poet Laureate, 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 only UK national newspaper to go online-only in 2016.
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