Standard website homepage on 16 April 2026
The Independent has completed a “long-term” deal to run the digital operations and print advertising of The Standard.
Press Gazette understands that out of 75 total Standard staff at the start of year, 36 have left the business, 23 have transferred over to Independent Media and 16 remain to work on the weekly print edition. There were no compulsory redundancies.
The new Standard Digital operation covers the brand’s digital journalism, commercial solutions, adtech and data management.
It will sit alongside a new Standard Studio developing podcasts, social video channels and newsletters, following in the footsteps of Independent Studio which launched last year.
Independent Media has had a similar licensing partnership deal to operate Buzzfeed, Huffpost, Tasty and Seasoned in the UK and Ireland since March 2024.
Evening Standard Limited will continue to run the print editorial output of the Standard’s weekly magazine edition as a separate company.
Lord Evgeny Lebedev is the controlling shareholder of the Standard and is also the largest single shareholder of The Independent . Both businesses are based in the same London building.
The Evening Standard had 346 staff members when Lebedev first bought it in 2009.
Planned roles on the Standard website in the new structure include: editor, several publishing hub editors, chief reporter, chief political correspondent, four reporters, two entertainment and life reporters, an e-commerce editor, six sports reporters, two audience editors and two video journalists. Specialist correspondent roles being cut include: crime, transport and City Hall.
There are also four dedicated commercial roles in the new Standard online team.
Sadness at Standard over loss of ‘inherited wisdom’
A well-placed source told Press Gazette: “We all loved the paper, loved our colleagues, loved the patch and didn’t want to leave but didn’t feel we had any realistic opportunity to stay.”
They shared their “sadness” at what had happened, adding that “lots of inherited wisdom has been lost” and they “had a great innings and it was a great paper while it was great”.
In February The Independent was the seventh biggest newsbrand in the UK with an audience of 17.6 million people, down 6% month on month and 3% year on year – according to digital data collected by Ipsos iris.
The Standard was in eighteenth place with an audience of 7.9 million (down 16% compared to January and 21% compared to February 2025).
The takeover was originally due to take effect on 1 March . Since it was first announced in January two Standard leaders departed: chief executive Tamar Riley (who has joined specialist publisher Immediate as portfolio managing director leading its food, wellness, knowledge and entertainment brands) and chief content officer Anna van Praagh.
The profitable Independent has just marked its tenth anniversary of being digital only, having closed its print newspaper in March 2016.
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