The news that London, self-proclaimed capital city of the world, is no longer to have its own daily newspaper – when once it had three – might have passed most people by.
The decision by the owners of the Evening Standard to cease daily publication and switch to weekly publication this year tells us much about the reading habits of the public and the march of technology – but possibly more about the changing face of London.
Born in May 1827, the Standard has been an important voice on national issues from the repeal of the Corn Laws in the mid-1800s to the Iraq War of 2003; indelibly woven into the cultural and commercial fabric of the capital.
When I first started in national newspapers in the 80s, the arrival of the lunchtime edition of the Standard was an event: it set the news agenda for the day, and no one from business, politics or the media in the city would consider themselves well-briefed until they’d rifled through its pages.
In those days, the Standard........© iNews