Evening Standard battles for readers with revamp No2

The Evening Standard is being forced to revamp for the second time in six months to stem declining circulations. The move will also step up its battle against a new, free evening rival to be distributed on the Underground by the end of the year.

It will continue its rolling innovation under managing director Bert Hardy. But experts say what the paper needs is stronger cover stories.

A dummy of the new-look Evening Standard has been shown to staff but has yet to be seen by agencies. From May 8, readers will be able to navigate through the newspaper using colour-coded pages for each section and see a brand new typeface inside.

Hardy says: “The continued evolution of the Standard will make it even more attractive to consumers and advertisers.” But one press director says: “No idea is a bad idea in a declining market but what the Standard really needs is better splashes on the cover, the strongest marketing ploy there is.

“The quality of the front page story affects evening newspaper circulation more than morning papers. Some people pick up the Standard out of pure habit but the rest depend on London-centric hard news on the front rather than national news.”