The Evening Standard has reported its highest losses since going free in 2009, for the year before it decided to drop its daily print edition.
Evening Standard Ltd has now reported seven straight years of pre-tax losses, deepening in the year ending 1 October 2023 to £20.6m.
This is worse than its first year after going free in 2009, when the company reported pre-tax losses of £20.3m.
It is also worse than the year to October 2020 (£17.2m) when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the business hard due to many commuters no longer travelling during the lockdowns, affecting its print pick-up and therefore advertising revenues.
The figures show the backdrop to the decision, announced in May this year, to cut the print edition of the Evening Standard down from publication every weekday to Thursdays only. Around half of the Standard newsroom, or around 66 people, were made redundant as a result.
The relaunched version of the paper, called The London Standard, went live on 26 September.
In the Companies House accounts, company director Manish Malhotra said: "At the end of the financial year, the company brought in external consultants to conduct a comprehensive review of its business operations.
"The goal was to refine future strategies and identify opportunities to reduce overall losses... Consequently, shareholders have approved and are engaging in the adoption of a new digital-first strategy for the Evening Standard, accompanied by a free weekly newspaper."
The business was also challenged by its October 2023 website relaunch not translating into the expected results.
Malhotra said: "The improvements were designed to make it easier for audiences to access news and features while opening new opportunities for growth in both scale and engagement. However, despite the platform's relaunch, the expected performance was not realised."
Last year similarly saw the biggest operating loss since the paper went free (£18.4m, up from a loss of £14m in 2021/22 and compared to £18.5m in 2009/10).
Malhotra said: "The company has been incurring losses over [a] number of years now. Therefore, there is a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to remain a going concern."
However he added that the company is "confident" Evgeny Lebedev will continue to provide further funding: "It is anticipated that in the event that further funding is required, the majority shareholder will continue to financially support the company."
Cashflow forecasts indicate "significant additional funding" will be needed to meet the company's liabilities between 27 September this year and December 2025, the accounts later added.
The Evening Standard also reported its lowest revenue in the same time frame: £26.8m, down 15% year-on-year. The previous low was £28.1m in 2020/21.
Advertising continues to represent more than 90% of turnover but the market, Malhotra said, continues to be affected by the conflict in Ukraine, the "long-term effects" of the Covid-19 lockdowns which changed spending patterns at some companies, and the "overall economic environment with inflationary pressures and inconsistent economic growth".
The revenue decline was reflected in both print and digital which the company said were both down 16% year-on-year.
About 5% of revenue (£1.4m) came from events, doubling year-on-year. Staff on events also almost doubled from eight to 15. There were 213 employees across the main news publishing business (including editorial and commercial).
The company's net liabilities increased from £15.2m in 2021/22 to £19m.
Interim chief executive and then-chairman Paul Kanareck told staff in May the "substantial losses accruing from the current operations are not sustainable".
The Standard is hoping to emulate the financial turnaround of sister title The Independent which is expected in 2024 to reach the point where it has doubled both its trading profitability and revenues in five years. The Independent closed its print newspaper to go digital-only in March 2016.
Costs were "largely in line" with the previous year with the exception of newsprint cost which "reduced significantly" after hitting a peak in 2022. This meant costs were £47.4m, down 1% year-on-year.
In August, the Standard's final month in its previous iteration although it had already dropped its Monday and Friday editions at the end of July, the newspaper was putting out an average of 273,631 copies per day.
This compares to 787,447 in February 2020 before the first Covid-19 lockdown hit.
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