Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev is to transform the London Evening Standard into a free newspaper in ten days time – ending a near 200 year tradition of charging for the title.

The Standard’s publishers confirmed this morning that from October 12 it will become one of the first quality newspapers in the world to cease charging readers for its print edition.

Converting the 50p newspaper to a free title will see it more than double its daily circulation of around 250,000 to more than 600,000.