Evening Standard relaunches as ‘The Standard’ on digital
The Evening Standard has signalled a departure from its commuter-newsbrand offer by launching a new website and apps under the branding of simply The Standard.
The new-look Standard.co.uk (which had already been the website address) is a revamp of the brand’s digital identity, hoping to offer a “cleaner, brighter, and more modern design and vastly improved user experience.”
A spokesperson for the publisher said the new site delivers “far greater flexibility in layout and allows the Standard to elevate its premium quality content with a renewed focus on brand-safe areas such as fashion, travel, culture and tech.”
Many of the Standard‘s channels have been renamed with the goal of clarifying their purpose to audiences and commercial partners. Reveller has been changed to Going Out, Insider has been changed to Lifestyle, and Escapist has been changed to Travel.
Further, the Standard‘s daily news podcast The Leader is also being renamed as simply The Standard with the goal of consolidating the newsbrand’s digital identity across its channels.
That includes one new channel; the Standard has today launched a social channel on Meta-owned WhatsApps, where stories, features, and interviews can be sent directly to users via the messaging app.
To visually represent the new direction of the publisher in the daily print edition, the Evening Standard will now feature a single image front page.
As a free commuter paper, the Standard has felt the effects of the Covid pandemic and resultant hybrid working economy. The publisher currently says its print edition reaches an audience of 505,000, while its digital monthly audience sits at 11 million. The newsbrand also has a combined 3 million followers on social media and 355,000 total newsletter sign-ups. Of its daily readers, 73% live outside of London.
The changes come soon after the outlet named former GQ editor Dylan Jones as its editor-in-chief in June. Since joining, he has made a number of strategic appointments, including appointing a new managing editor, head of design, fashion director, literary editor and comment editor, and executive editor.
Jones has also sought to revamp the outlet’s contributors. Beginning this autumn, the likes of artist Tracey Emin, journalist Rachel Johnson, ex-Downing Street comms director Guto Harri, Spectator political editor Katy Balls, journalist Suzanne Moore, journalist Ben Judah, journalist Sarah Baxter, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, London mayor Sadiq Khan, journalist David Aaronovitch, journalist Miranda Sawyer, Soho House editorial director Teo van den Broeke and artist Sue Webster will be contributing columns and op-eds. Journalist and biographer Michael Wolff will also be writing a weekly column about the forthcoming US election.
“The Evening Standard is truly the gateway to London’s news and culture for Londoners everywhere,” said Jones. “Our fantastic new website gives us an optimised way of building deeper relationships with our audiences and delivering the thought provoking and entertaining journalism they expect to read from the Standard.”
Rich Mead, the Evening Standard‘s interim managing director, added, “Our investment in digital is at the heart of our renewed commercial strategy as we seek to further leverage our iconic brand to drive audience growth and improve engagement with our readers. Couples with the reenergised editorial vision that Dylan is implementing and the ongoing diversification of the business into new areas, including the growth of live events and exhibitions, I am excited about the Evening Standard‘s next chapter at the heart of London life.”