Losses at the Evening Standard top £100m over seven years

Losses at the Evening Standard have topped £100m, highlighting the financial pressure on the title, which last month stopped daily publishing in the capital after almost 200 years.

- Mark Sweney

The Evening Standard, which has rebranded as the London Standard in a move to become a digital-first publication supported by a weekly print edition, reported a pre-tax loss of £20.6m in the year to 1 October 2023.

The latest annual loss, up from £16.4m in 2022, means the title has recorded total losses of £105.1m over the past seven years. The last time it was in the black was 2016, when it made a pre-tax profit of £517,000. Revenues fell from £31.6m to £26.8m year on year, the latest annual accounts show, with the publisher saying print and digital revenues had declined by 16%. The publisher said costs were £47m, with £15.5m of that relating to employees, whose numbers have been cut since the move to end daily publishing.