Media Analysis: Standard Plots Renaissance

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London's paid-for daily is in urgent need of a way to re-engage both readers and media buyers, writes Jeremy Lee.

Is the news that the Evening Standard is looking for a new advertising agency - and presumably, therefore, a fresh marketing strategy - a futile roll of the dice by Associated Newspapers as it tries to rescue a brand that is insurmountably moribund?

Circulation figures certainly show that the paper, which for so long appeared to have the London daily newspaper market cornered, has suffered a dramatic fall from grace in recent years. The most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations figures, for April, reveal a 16% year-on-year fall to an average of 266,214 copies a day.

Mark Gallagher, executive director of Manning Gottlieb OMD, claims that …