The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London, England. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London finance. In October 2009 the paper ended a 180-year history of paid circulation and became a free giveaway, doubling its circulation as part of a change in its business plan.

The newspaper was founded by the barrister, Stanley Lees Giffard, on 21 May 1827, as the Standard. The early owner of the paper was Charles Baldwin. Under the ownership of James Johnstone The Standard became a morning paper from 29 June 1857, with The Evening Standard being published from 11 June 1859. The Standard gained eminence for its detailed foreign news, with its reporting events of the American Civil War (1861–1865), of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, all contributing to a rise in circulation.

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register (it became The Times on 1 January 1788). The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International, itself wholly owned by the News Corporation group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967.

The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, including The Times of India (1838), The Straits Times (1845), The New York Times (1851), The Irish Times (1859), the Los Angeles Times (1881), The Seattle Times (1891), The Daily Times (Malawi) (1900), The Canberra Times (1926), and The Times (Malta) (1935). For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the "London Times" or "The Times of London".

London ⁱ/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.

Newspaper delivery is the last stage of newspaper circulation consisting of distributing newspapers to consumers. One method of distributing newspapers is selling newspapers on the street, or in favorable locations, either by a "newsboy" or at a news stand, or in vending machines, but newspaper delivery generally refers to delivery to subscribers on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. Historically this was done by adolescent boys using bicycles. Paperboys traditionally were and are still often portrayed on television and movies as preteen boys, often on a bicycle. Today, with the latest child labor laws most paper boys are aged 13 or over.

The position of paperboy occupies a prominent place in many countries including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Japan. This is because it has long been the first paying job available to young teenagers, often male.

Despite that, the number of paperboys has declined greatly. This is due partly to the disappearance of afternoon newspapers, whose delivery times worked better for school-aged children than did those of morning papers which were typically delivered before 6 a.m. The numbers have also been affected by changing demographics, the availability of news and newspapers on the internet, employment laws and concern about the safety of un-escorted children, all of which have led many newspapers to switch to delivery by adults. Today, they are mainly used by weekly community newspapers and free shopper papers, which still tend to be delivered in the afternoons. Alternatively, sometimes paperboys are only employed once a week to deliver the paper on Sunday.

Geordie Greig (born 1960 London) is a British journalist and newspaper editor. He is the editor of the Mail on Sunday newspaper. He attended Eton College and St Peter's College, Oxford.

Greig worked for the Kentish Mercury newspaper, the Daily Mail and Sunday Today, before joining the Sunday Times in 1987. He became the editor of Tatler magazine in 1999.

He was appointed editor for the Evening Standard in February 2009. This announcement followed the announcement on 21 January 2009 by the Daily Mail group that its newspaper division, Associated Newspapers Ltd, had agreed the sale of a majority interest in the Evening Standard for a nominal sum to Evening Press Ltd, a company formed by Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny Lebedev and owned by Lebedev Holdings Ltd. His first step as Evening Standard editor was to launch a series of "Sorry" advertisements across London, after market research showed the paper was deemed too negative and complacent about London under former editor Veronica Wadley's leadership, a move considered to be extremely daring.