Evening Standard set to move to "full editorial integration" with Independent
It has been announced that the Evening Standard and the Independent, both titles owned by Alexander Lebedev, are set to move towards holding "full editorial integration" to support new TV station, London Live.
The move will see Independent on Sunday editor, John Mullin, leave, and Chris Blackhurst to be in charge of the new seven day operation.
As part of this, the editorial for the Evening Standard and Independent will be pooled together, with suggestions of up to 20 job losses.
In a statement, Andrew Mullins, MD of ESL and IPL, said: “London Live’s successful bid for the Local London TV license, and the need to expand materially our digital sites, means that we will be making significant changes with editorial.
“We do, however, have to make these changes in the context of a very tough economic and print marketing conditions and can only expect the advertising market to get even tougher. The evening Standard has at last become self-funding, which is a tremendous achievement, but nothing can be taken for granted.
“As a result, the editorial changes we intend to make are radical and transformational for the way we work. They are designed to help generate both increased content and output, as well as produce further savings on all our titles from great efficiencies and synergies.”
A TV news studio will be built on the floor next to the news desk.