Evening Standard to launch new East London edition
London's top evening newspaper is to publish a second daily edition for the eastern side of the capital. The new 'E Standard' will be targeted at less affluent East Londoners, and launches next Monday.
The E Standard will be easily distinguishable by a bold bright red stripe across the top of the front cover. Look out for the official distributors in their red caps outside Stratford and Canning Town stations, as well as selected inner London tube entrances and rail termini from 1st February.
"We've been wanting to do this for a long time," said Evening Standard Commissioning Editor Penny Wright-George. "London is increasingly a city of two halves, so it's only right that we respect that choice with a fresh feed of more relevant journalism."
"We know our West London readers enjoy the lively mix of business news, high society chatter and basement extension updates we bring them every day. Our East London readers aren't quite the same breed, so we'll be doing everything we can to help them aspire to a better lifestyle, whilst maintaining a laser focus on the more mundane aspects of East End life."
"When there's a murder, we pledge to be the first to publish a shot of the location screengrabbed from Google Streetview. If a press release arrives from a dynamic new market stall or backstreet pop-up, we promise to republish it in full. We'll even try and include the occasional news story about Romford and Hornchurch, because it's been years."
The new E Standard will feature graphic details of petty violence and knife crime wherever it may strike, as well as inspiring tales from estates several miles from the nearest proper coffee shop. There'll be gossip from the streets in a new 'Bus Shelter' diary page, and the sports pages will be wall-to-wall West Ham, with the occasional paragraph of Leyton Orient team news when there is any.
Wednesday's property supplement will continue, in somewhat thinner form, focusing on key projects such as shared ownership flats and council housing swaps. Expect Monday's fashion pullout to feature hair straightening tips rather than catwalk style, while Friday's leisure section will review a different fried chicken shop every week.
For the purposes of practicality, and because advertisers concur, Walthamstow and Woolwich are to be included with the Evening Standard's new eastern zone. The special edition may also be shipped to Lewisham and Abbey Wood, assuming people living in these areas actually read newspapers. By contrast Canary Wharf remains a bastion of financial privilege in a sea of poverty, so the red-top will never be distributed here.
Readers across the rest of London should be reassured that the Eastern edition will not be forced on them if they don't want it. Only the pure original Evening Standard will be distributed to commuters at Waterloo and Paddington, and residents of Kensington and Chelsea need never dirty their hands. But both versions will be on offer at locations from Midtown through to Aldgate - grab the red-top if you're heading east, and avoid at all costs otherwise.
"We're well aware that nothing much of any importance happens in East London," admits Wright-George, "so we'll be padding out the E Standard with several 'how the other half lives' features from the sister paper. Our journalists will also continue to spot popular clickbait on Twitter and work it up into a 100-word story, because we know how easy that is."
"But above all, we want our readers to feel a part of the London they live in. No longer will we waste time telling East Londoners about £10m mansions, theatre luvvies and superfood start-ups, while West Londoners need never hear about Sadiq Khan ever again, whoever he was."
London's top evening newspaper is to publish a second daily edition for the eastern side of the capital. The new 'E Standard' will be targeted at less affluent East Londoners, and launches next Monday.
