The Evening Standard is to stop printing a daily newspaper, blaming working from home and increased WiFi on the London Underground.
The London freesheet told staff on Wednesday it will scrap its daily print edition and become a weekly title instead.
The Standard, which is owned by Russian-born billionaire Lord Lebedev, has been struggling for direction in recent years after being hammered by a collapse in commuting and a deep advertising downturn during Covid lockdowns.
The rise of home working and increased mobile and WiFi signal on the London Underground have also hit its readership.
In October, print circulation dropped below 300,000 for the first time since it became a free newspaper in 2009.
Surging inflation and print costs have also hurt the bottom line. The paper has shrunk to an average of around 30 pages, down from roughly 70 a decade ago.
Bosses have attempted to diversify the company away from advertising by pushing into sponsored content and live events. However, ad sales still make up the vast majority of its revenues.
Lord Lebedev has been forced to pump loans of at least £29m into the newspaper over the last two years, while losses ballooned to £16.4m in 2022.
The freesheet has acknowledged it requires additional funding to stay afloat, which the peer last year agreed to provide for a further 12 months.
Lord Lebedev, who bought the Standard in 2009 for just £1, has raised eyebrows by using the title to wage a freedom of speech campaign, penning a number of articles railing against cancel culture.
The Standard, which was founded in 1827, has also been rocked by turmoil in its senior management in recent months.
The media group is still without a chief executive after the abrupt departure of Charles Yardley, who left last summer after three years. Rich Mead took up the role on an interim basis but also stepped down in November.
The newspaper’s editorial direction has also come under scrutiny. Lord Lebedev last year brought in Dylan Jones, the former editor of men’s magazine GQ, as editor-in-chief.
Mr Jones, a well-known journalist and socialite who helped David Cameron write his 2008 biography, filled a lengthy vacuum at the top of the paper after Emily Sheffield, Lord Cameron’s sister-in-law, stepped down as editor in 2021 after just 15 months in the role.
Under his tenure, the newspaper has hired a number of high-profile columnists including artist Tracy Emin and American journalist Michael Wolff.
Meanwhile, Lord Lebedev has become an increasingly controversial figure in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The billionaire, who also co-owns the Independent, was nominated for a peerage in 2020 by then-prime minister Boris Johnson, a long standing friend.
The move triggered outrage – and later national security concerns – when Lord Lebedev’s father Alexander, a former KGB agent, was sanctioned by Canada.
Lord Lebedev has insisted he has no links to the Kremlin and penned an article for the Evening Standard early on in the war calling for Vladimir Putin to stop his assault on Ukraine.
The Evening Standard has been contacted for comment.
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