A huge sales boost for the Evening Standard proved that news can sell papers more effectively than CD giveaways.
Friday’s
edition carried 14 pages of news and comment on the election plus an
eight-page results pull-out which was off stone before 7am. Readers
were able to buy the Standard by around 8.30am at main railway stations.
Journalists
filed copy from all the major London election counts, and the front
page carried Blair’s final majority of 66. Later editions included news
that Michael Howard intended to resign.
The full-price sale was
449,000 (up 100,000 on the previous Friday) and with Standard Lite the
combined circulation on the day was 526,000.
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Managing editor Doug
Wills said: “The sale was significantly more for the election special
than we would get for a CD.” He added: “Whenever there’s a major news
event Londoners tend to turn to the Standard. It’s gratifying to see
this hasn’t changed.”
Senior editors and subs came in at 3am to bring the special edition out.
Writers included Keith Dovcants, Anne McElvoy, Andrew Gilligan, Peter Oborne, John O’Sullivan and City editor Chris Blackhurst.
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The Cambridge Evening News election coverage hit the streets just an
hour and a half after the shock news of the city’s Labour MP being
ousted by the Liberal Democrats.
Confirmation of Anne Campbell’s
defeat by David Howarth did not come until 5.30am, but the paper hit
the streets at 7am with 19 pages of local and national coverage and
reaction, plus 12 pages listing results from every constituency.
Sales were up 14.5 per cent.
Led
by chief reporter Chris Elliott and parliamentary correspondent Bill
Jacobs, the effort involved an overnight subbing team, and half of the
paper’s reporters. Editor Murray Morse said: “It meant readers who
hadn’t stayed up until the small hours were able to get all the
election news first from their local evening paper.”
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