London Evening Standard

The London Standard, branded online as The Standard and formerly known as the Evening Standard, is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly on Thursdays and distributed free of charge in London, England. It is printed in tabloid format and also has a digital edition for reading the print publication digitally. The paper was launched in 1827 during the reign of George IV and was known as The Standard, for some time competing with The Times. An evening edition began in 1859 and the publication adopted the Evening Standard name several times throughout its history. During the mid-20th century, it was one of the main regional London newspapers alongside The Evening News and The Star. By 1980, the Standard had become a monopoly after the former's merger into it. It briefly faced new competition from London Daily News in 1987, and from 2006 by The London Paper. The Standard pridefully branded itself as the "voice of London". In October 2009, after being bought by Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, the paper ended a 180-year history of paid circulation and multiple editions every day, and became a free newspaper publishing a single print edition every weekday.