Evening Standard’s losses climb to nearly £70m over five years

Evgeny Lebedev's London freesheet reports 14m loss for last year as Covid continues to hit advertising

The Evening Standard has reported a loss of 14m for last year as the Covid pandemic continued to dent advertising income and commuters remained at home - taking the London freesheet's losses to almost 70m over the past five years.

The newspaper, which is majority owned by Evgeny Lebedev, embarked on a big cost-cutting drive during the pandemic which has resulted in staff numbers falling by more than a quarter from 320 to 236 in the 53 weeks to 3 October last year.