Dylan Jones has stepped down as editor-in-chief of The London Standard two months after relaunching the formerly daily paper as a magazine-style, weekly newspaper.
Jones, a former editor of British GQ, will be succeeded by Anna van Praagh, the Standard’s chief content officer, who will be acting editor until a permanent successor is chosen. Jones will stay on as editor at large and “write frequently” for the title.
Albert Read, the Standard’s executive chairman and a former Condé Nast colleague of Jones, wrote to staff on Thursday telling them Jones had decided to step down “to spend more time on writing and on his various other projects.
“Dylan has overseen our recent transition and has had a huge effect on our business. I would like to thank him for the immense contribution he has made to the paper, the website and to the Standard brand overall.
“The reinvention of the Standard has been enacted through his vision, his energy, his stature in London and in the world of journalism.”
A successor “will be announced in due course”, Read said. Jones takes up his new editor at large title on 19 December.
Jones was appointed editor of the Standard, then still named the Evening Standard, in May 2023. Before his announcement the Standard editor’s chair had sat empty for more than a year and a half.
A year into his tenure the company informed staff that, following seven straight years of losses reported to Companies House, the free paper would cease to publish a daily print product after almost two centuries. Earlier the same month Jones told a Society of Editors conference that he “never” reads a print newspaper.
The phase-out of the daily paper is believed to have led to the loss of approximately half the Standard’s 140 editorial roles. The cuts were reportedly prompted by the Standard’s Saudi investors, who put pressure on proprietor Evgeny Lebedev to stem the years of continuous losses.
The relaunched Standard ran with an AI-generated picture of Keir Starmer on its first front cover and published an AI-generated interview with its late art critic Brian Sewell inside.
Jones’ departure follows that of Standard managing editor Jack Lefley, who left the paper the week after it relaunched to become editor-in-chief of news agency PA Media, and chief commercial officer James White, who left the week after that.
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