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Evening Standard

Type	Regional free daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner	Alexander Lebedev, Evgeny Lebedev (74.1%), Daily Mail and General Trust (24.9%)[1]
Editor	Sarah Sands
Founded	1827
Headquarters	Northcliffe House, Derry Street, Kensington
Circulation	263,095 (paid, December 2006)[2] 600,000+ (free, October 2009)[3]
Official website	http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/

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.^[3]

History[link]

Headlines of the Evening Standard on the day of London bombing on 7 July 2005, in Waterloo Station

The newspaper was founded by the barrister, Stanley Lees Giffard, on 21 May 1827, as the Standard.^[4] 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.^[5]

The Evening Standard has sponsored the annual Evening Standard Theatre Awards since the 1950s.^{[citation needed]} The newspaper has also awarded the annual Evening Standard Pub of the Year (discontinued 2007)^{[citation needed]} and the Evening Standard British Film Awards since the 1970s.^{[citation needed]}

Lebedev takeover[link]

On 21 January 2009 Russian businessman and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and son Evgeny Lebedev, now the paper's chairman, agreed to purchase 75.1% of the paper for £1.^[6][7] The paper was formerly published by Associated Newspapers Ltd., a division of Daily Mail and General Trust, which also published the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and Metro, a free morning paper distributed Monday-Friday at London stations.

In November 2009, it was announced that the London Evening Standard would drop its midday 'News Extra' edition from 4 January 2010 with the first edition being the West End Final, available from 2pm.^[8] One edition of 600,000 copies would be printed starting at 12:30pm, ending 3am starts for journalists and the previous deadline of 9am for the first edition; twenty people were expected to lose their jobs as a result.^[8]

Previously there were three editions each weekday, excluding Bank holidays. The first of these, "News Extra", went to print at 10:00am and was available around 11:00am in central London,^{[citation needed]} slightly later in more outlying areas (such as Kent). A second edition "West End Final" went to print at 3:00pm and the "Late Night Final" went to print at 5 p.m. and was available in the central area from about 6 p.m.^{[citation needed]} There was often considerable variation between the editions, particularly with the front page lead and following few pages, including the Londoner's Diary, though features and reviews stayed the same. The page changes are indicated by stars in the bottom left hand corner of each page: two stars for the second edition, three stars for the third.^{[citation needed]}

May 2009 relaunch[link]

In May 2009 the paper launched a series of poster ads, each of which prominently featured the word 'Sorry' in the paper's then-masthead font. These ads offered various apologies for past editorial approaches, such as 'Sorry for losing touch'.^[9] None of the posters mentioned the Evening Standard by name, although they featured the paper's Eros logo. Ex-editor Veronica Wadley criticised the "Pravda-style" campaign saying it humiliated the paper's staff and insulted its readers.^[10] The campaign was designed by McCann Erickson. Also in May 2009 the paper relaunched as the London Evening Standard with a new layout and masthead, marking the occasion by giving away 650,000 free copies on the day,^[11] and refreshed its sports coverage.^[12]

October 2009: freesheet[link]

After a long history of paid circulation, on 12 October 2009 the Standard became a free newspaper,^[3][13] with free circulation limited to central London. In February 2010, a paid-for circulation version became available in suburban areas of London for 20p.^[14][15][16] The newspaper won the Media Brand of the Year and the Grand Prix Gold awards at the Media Week awards in October 2010.^[17] The judges said, "[the Standard has] quite simply ... stunned the market. Not just for the act of going free, but because editorial quality has been maintained, circulation has almost trebled and advertisers have responded favourably. Here is a media brand restored to health."^[17] The Standard also won the daily newspaper of the year award at the London Press Club Press Awards in May 2011.^[18]

Editorial style[link]

The current editor of the Standard is Sarah Sands who replaced Geordie Greig following his departure to the Mail on Sunday in March 2012.^[19] Veronica Wadley was the paper's editor for seven years between 2002 and 2009.^[20] Max Hastings was editor from 1996 until he retired in 2002.

Although, under Associated Newspaper's ownership, the Standard shared the same Editor in Chief, Paul Dacre, as the Daily Mail, it maintained a quite different style^{[citation needed]} from the latter's "middle England" outlook, in order to appeal to its local, more cosmopolitan readership.

The Evening Standard, although a regional newspaper for London, also covers national and international news, though with an emphasis on London-centred news (especially in its features pages), covering building developments, property prices, traffic schemes, politics, the congestion charge and, in the Londoner's Diary page, gossip on the social scene. It also occasionally runs campaigns centred around local issues that national newspapers do not cover in detail.

It has a tradition of providing quality arts coverage, and is noted for its visual art critic, Brian Sewell, more recently also a television personality, who is renowned for his outspoken dismissal of Britart and the Turner Prize.^{[citation needed]} This accords with the general readership,^{[citation needed]} but was so unpopular with leading figures in the art world that they signed a letter demanding his dismissal^{[citation needed]} (he is still there).

Its headline writers have been accused of having a "doom-and-gloom" agenda.^[21]

2008 London Mayoral Election[link]

During the 2008 London mayoral election the Evening Standard—and particularly its correspondent Andrew Gilligan—published articles in support of Conservative candidate Boris Johnson, including frequent front-page headlines condemning Ken Livingstone. This included the headline, "Suicide bomb backer runs Ken's campaign!"^[22]

2010 General Election[link]

On 5 May 2010, the Standard stated in an editorial that having supported Labour under Tony Blair, the paper would be supporting David Cameron and the Conservatives in the General Election, saying that "the Conservatives are ready for power: they look like a government in waiting."^[23]

Freesheet and supplements[link]

The Evening Standard has a fleet of delivery vans painted in a distinctive orange and white livery

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

On 14 December 2004 Associated Newspapers launched a freesheet edition of the Evening Standard called Standard Lite to help boost circulation. This had 48 pages, compared with about 80 in the main paper, which also had a supplement on most days.

In August 2006 the freesheet was relaunched as London Lite. It was designed to be especially attractive to younger female readers, and featured a wide range of lifestyle articles, but less news and business news than the main paper. It was initially only available between 11.30am and 2.30pm at Evening Standard vendors and in the central area, but later became available in the evening from its street distributors. With the sale of the Evening Standard, but not the London Lite, to Alexander Lebedev on 21 January 2009, the ownership links between the Standard and the Lite were broken.

On Fridays the Evening Standard includes a free glossy lifestyle magazine, ES. This has moved from more general articles to concentrate on glamour, with features on the rich, powerful and famous. On Wednesdays, readers can pick up a free copy of the Homes & Property supplement, edited by Janice Morley, which includes London property listings as well as articles from lifestyle journalists including Barbara Chandler, Katie Law and Alison Cork.

An entertainment guide supplement Metro Life (previously called Hot Tickets) was launched in September 2002. This was a what's on guide with listings of cinemas and theatres in and around London, and was given away on Thursdays. It was discontinued on 1 September 2005.

The paper also supplies occasional CDs and DVDs for promotions. It also give Londoners a chance to win exclusive tickets to film premieres and sports tournament tickets, such as the Wimbledon Ladies Singles Final.

The Evening Standard Black Book is a list of London's 1000 most influential people in 2008.

In popular culture[link]

• In the 2002 apocalyptic horror film 28 days later, the newspaper was one of the last printed papers in the UK, informing Londoners about a deadly epidemic sweeping the country as well as that the city was to be evacuated and the Prime Minister had declared a state of emergency.^[24]

Websites[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The newspaper's This Is London website carries some of the stories from the Evening Standard and promotions, reviews and competitions. It also includes a number of blogs by Evening Standard writers, such as restaurant critic Charles Campion, theatre critic Kieron Quirke and music critic David Smyth. A separate website contains images of each page of the print edition (two versions) and supplements.

Editors[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Evening Standard

• This is London stories from the Evening Standard
• London Evening Standard E-edition (requires registration to view)

A paperboy for the Toronto Star in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, 1940.

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.

History[link]

Newsboy, Iowa City, 1940, Arthur Rothstein.

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.^[1]

Newspaper industry lore suggests that the first paperboy, hired in 1833, was 10-year-old Barney Flaherty who answered an advertisement in the New York Sun, which read "To the Unemployed a number of steady men can find employment by vending this paper."

Meaning[link]

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010)

Newspaper delivery is selling or delivering newspapers to consumers on a regular route. There has been a migration of newspaper deliver to adults, of either sex, who deliver newspapers on auto routes with a motor vehicle. Historically, newspaper delivery was generally done by adolescent boys using bicycles, "paper boys". The laws of the United States provide that "Minors employed in the delivery of newspapers to consumers are exempt from Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) child labor provisions, as well as the wage and hours provisions."^[2]

Pros[link]

Paper distribution is a fairly simple job. It consists of mapping out one's territory and using it to advantage in distributing paper. Knowledge of bicycle maintenance (if used) and basic customer service skills are developed. During the Holiday season in western countries, a paperboy can make an extra bonus - similar to a postman or a milkman. This is typically done by writing a Christmas card to each of the customers on the round and, in many cases, the customers will respond by leaving a "Christmas Box" or a "tip" (cash) as a gift. Customers may of course choose to leave tips and gifts out at any time of the year.

Cons[link]

It is a low-standing job. As most papers are delivered early in the morning it requires the delivery person to get up early, which can also mean braving cold, dark, and inhospitable conditions. Some delivery routes have also moved away from simple 'walking routes' to larger 'driving routes', which requires both a car and a license. 'Driving routes' have become less profitable with the rising price of fuel, since fuel is not paid for by most newspapers/newsagents.

For paperboys using a bike, and the typical paper-round bag - in the UK a luminous, waterproof coloured bag with a single strap - the papers (chiefly at the weekend) are collectively very heavy and/or thick, meaning that often on a Saturday or a Sunday the round has to be split and completed in two halves. The worst "culprits" in the UK are the Daily Telegraph on a Saturday and the Sunday Telegraph; The Sunday Times and The Observer (which is small but thick).

The early depictions of paperboys on bikes throwing papers into gardens is no longer prevalent as most houses now have a letterbox on the front door and gardens are not easily accessible from the streets.

In fiction[link]

For motion pictures with the word in the title, see the IMDb; for others in which they feature, see [1]

Arnold Bennett's 1911 novel The Card features a newspaper take-over. Part of the success of the stratagem depends on the proprietor temporarily detaining all his rival's paperboys, which he does by promising them food and locking them in. The paperboys are depicted as a rumbustious and tight-knit group.

Tony Macaulay's memoir 'Paperboy' (2010) tells the experiences of a paperboy in West Belfast in the 1970s.

Bob Thurber's 'Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel' (2011) tells the experiences of a 14-year-old paperboy and his emotionally troubled sister during the summer of 1969.

Newsies, a 1992 musical film, directed by Kenny Ortega, is about the Newsboys Strike of 1899.

Better Off Dead 1985 movie features a paperboy on a bicycle that throws a newspaper through a closed window breaking the window glass. There are several paperboys in this movie.

In the 2001 Disney film, Max Keeble's Big Move, the film's protagonist is a local paperboy.

While You Were Sleeping (1995) paperboy scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRR4to6KcOQ

See also[link]

• Newsagent's shop
• Newspaper Carrier Day
• Paperboy (video game)
• Newsboy cap
• Paperboys (documentary)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Newspaper vendors

• Preus Museum. Lewis Hine, Newspaperboys photos

Audio clips[link]

• Paperboy – arrangement of Londonderry Air, aka Danny Boy for orchestra and solo baritone, performed by Kieran of the Potato Hermits, 2010

Benedict Cumberbatch
Cumberbatch during filming of Sherlock in 2011
Born	Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (1976-07-19) 19 July 1976 (age 35) London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2001–present
Parents	Timothy Carlton Wanda Ventham

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English film, television, radio and theatre actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking (2004); William Pitt in the historical film Amazing Grace (2006); the protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy (2008); Paul Marshall in Atonement (2007); Bernard in Small Island (2009); Sherlock Holmes in the modern BBC adaptation series Sherlock (2010); and Peter Guillam in the spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011).

In February 2011, he began playing both Victor Frankenstein and his creature opposite Jonny Lee Miller in Danny Boyle's stage adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The play had a three-month run at the National Theatre. In late 2011, he played Major Stewart in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011). The film received five BAFTA nominations and six Academy Award nominations, including the Best Picture nomination in 2012. He also played Peter Guillam, one of the pivotal roles in Tomas Alfredson's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011), which was nominated for three Academy Awards and 11 BAFTA Awards. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was also nominated for Best Picture in 2012.

He reprised the role of Sherlock Holmes in the second series of the BBC's Sherlock, which aired in the United Kingdom in January 2012 and was broadcast on PBS in the United States in May 2012. In addition to the BBC's Sherlock, he stars as Christopher Tietjens in the BBC/HBO co-production television miniseries Parade's End, which is expected to be released in 2012. He will portray Smaug the Dragon through motion capture and voice the Necromancer in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: There and Back Again. He will also portray the antagonist in director J.J. Abrams’s Untitled Star Trek sequel, which will be released in May 2013.

Early life and education[link]

Cumberbatch was born on 19 July 1976 in London, the son of actors Timothy Carlton (birth name Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch) and Wanda Ventham. He was educated at two independent schools: Brambletye School^[1] in West Sussex, followed by Harrow School in northwest London, where he began performing as an actor. After school, he took a gap year to teach English in a Tibetan monastery.^[2] He then attended the University of Manchester, where he studied drama.^[3] After graduating, Cumberbatch continued his training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Career[link]

Theatre[link]

Since 2001, Cumberbatch has had major roles in a dozen classic plays at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, Almeida Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and the National Theatre. He was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for his performance as Tesman in Hedda Gabler, a role he performed at the Almeida Theatre on 16 March 2005, as well as at the Duke of York's Theatre when it transferred to the West End on 19 May 2005.

Cumberbatch acted in The Children’s Monologues, a star-studded theatrical event at London's Old Vic Theatre on 14 November 2010. The show was produced by Dramatic Need.^[4] In February 2011, he began playing, on alternate nights, both Victor Frankenstein and his creature, opposite Jonny Lee Miller, in Danny Boyle's stage production of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at the National Theatre.^[5][6] Frankenstein was broadcast to cinemas as a part of National Theatre Live in March 2011.^[7] The Children’s Monologues was directed by Danny Boyle as well.

In April 2012 Cumberbatch won the Olivier Award for Best Actor (jointly with Jonny Lee Miller) for the acclaimed Frankenstein at the National Theatre, directed by Danny Boyle, with the two lead actors alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature.

Television[link]

Cumberbatch's television roles include two separate guest roles in Heartbeat (2000, 2004), Freddy in Tipping the Velvet (2002), Edward Hand in Cambridge Spies (2003) and Rory in the ITV comedy drama series Fortysomething (2003). He was also featured in Spooks and Silent Witness.

In 2004, he starred as Stephen Hawking in Hawking. He was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Nymph for Television Films – Best Performance by an Actor. (He later provided Hawking's voice in the first episode of the television series Curiosity.) He also appeared in the BBC miniseries Dunkirk as Lieutenant Jimmy Langley.

In 2005, Cumberbatch starred as the protagonist Edmund Talbot in the miniseries To the Ends of the Earth, based on William Golding's trilogy. Director David Attwood said:

We found Benedict Cumberbatch fairly early. We needed a very good actor, someone young enough to be believable as an aristocratic, an almost slightly dislikeable character who is an adolescent in terms of his views of the world, his upbringing. But we also needed someone who could hold the screen for four and half hours, in every scene. We needed someone with experience who was not only a very good actor, but also with terrific comic timing. Benedict was the ideal answer to that.^[8]

Producer Lynn Horsford added:

Benedict was remarkable. He carried the Golding novels with him on set and constantly referred to them. We needed him every single day and he just didn't stop, nor complain. He simply became Edmund Talbot. And that commitment spread to every cast member. The process of making this film echoed the journey the characters went on in the story—we really got to know each other during our four months on location and we became very close.^[8]

He also made brief appearances in the comedy sketch show Broken News in 2005.

Cumberbatch next starred alongside Tom Hardy in the television adaptation of the book Stuart: A Life Backwards, which aired on the BBC in September 2007. In 2008, he starred in the BBC miniseries drama The Last Enemy, for which he was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film.

In 2009, Cumberbatch starred in Marple: Murder Is Easy as Luke Fitzwilliam. He played Bernard in the TV adaptation of Small Island; the performance earned him a nomination for BAFTA Television Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[9] He also starred in Michael Dobbs' play The Turning Point which aired as one of a series of TV plays broadcast live on Sky Arts channel. The two-hander depicted a little-known October 1938 meeting between Soviet spy Guy Burgess, then a young man working for the BBC, and Winston Churchill. Cumberbatch portrayed Burgess; Churchill was played by Matthew Marsh, who had played a supporting role in Hawking.^[10]

Cumberbatch narrated the 6-part series South Pacific (U.S. title: Wild Pacific), which aired May to June 2009 on BBC 2.

Cumberbatch, a fan of long-running British science fiction series Doctor Who, suggested in a July 2010 interview that he would be interested in appearing as a main or recurring character on the show, run by Sherlock producer and personal friend Steven Moffat.^[11] In 2008 he had discussed with David Tennant taking over the part of the Doctor but had decided not to try for the role.^[12]

In 2010, Cumberbatch portrayed Vincent van Gogh in Van Gogh: Painted with Words. The Telegraph called his performance "[a] treat ... vividly bringing Van Gogh to impassioned, blue-eyed life."^[13] Also in 2010, Cumberbatch began playing Sherlock Holmes in the first series of the BBC television programme Sherlock, to critical acclaim.^[14][15] A second three-part series began on New Years Day 2012 in England^[16] and will broadcast on PBS in the United States in May 2012.^[17]

He will co-star with Rebecca Hall as Christopher and Sylvia Tietjens in Parade's End, a forthcoming BBC/HBO television miniseries, expected for release in 2012. It is an adaptation of the tetralogy of novels of the same name by Ford Madox Ford. Its five episodes will be directed by Susanna White and written by Tom Stoppard.^[18][19]

Film[link]

In 2006, Cumberbatch played William Pitt the Younger in Amazing Grace. The film is the story of William Wilberforce's intense and lengthy political fight in the late 18th century to eliminate slave trade in the British Empire. Pitt was Wilberforce's closest friend and staunchest political ally, and became Prime Minister at an early age. The role garnered Cumberbatch a nomination for the London Film Critics Circle British Breakthrough Acting Award.

Cumberbatch subsequently appeared in supporting roles in Atonement (2007) and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). In 2009, he appeared in the Darwin biopic Creation as Darwin's friend Joseph Hooker. In 2010, he appeared in The Whistleblower.

He played Peter Guillam, George Smiley's right-hand man in the 2011 adaptation of the John le Carré novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, directed by Tomas Alfredson, also starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.^[20] He also portrayed Major Stewart in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011).

He will play Smaug the Dragon through motion capture and voice the Necromancer in The Hobbit: There and Back Again.^[21]

It has been reported that Cumberbatch will play a lead role in the upcoming J. J. Abrams-directed Star Trek sequel.^[22][23]

Radio[link]

In May 2009, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation of John Mortimer's novel Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders. Cumberbatch played the "young Rumpole", and Timothy West took the part of the "old Rumpole". Cumberbatch plays Capt Martin Crieff in the BBC's Cabin Pressure.

Miscellaneous[link]

The British GQ magazine named him "Actor of the Year 2011".^[24]

Personal life[link]

Cumberbatch was in a relationship with actress Olivia Poulet, whom he met at university, for over 12 years.^[25][26] They broke up in March 2011.^[27]

List of credits[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Benedict Cumberbatch

• Benedict Cumberbatch at the Internet Movie Database
• Benedict Cumberbatch at AllRovi
• Benedict Cumberbatch at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Benedict Cumberbatch (unofficial website)
• Benedict Cumberbatch Online
• Benedict Cumberbatch collected news and commentary at The Guardian

Damian Watcyn Lewis (born 11 February 1971) is an English actor and producer. His acting roles include Soames Forsyte in the ITV remake of The Forsyte Saga, Detective Charlie Crews in the NBC drama Life and Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. He currently stars as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in the award-winning Showtime series Homeland.^[1]