Evening Standard

The Standard was founded in 1827. It was a competitor to The Times in the 1880s under the editorship of William Mudford it began to lose readers at the turn of the century. The Standard and its sister paper, The Evening Standard, were purchased by Cyril Arthur Pearson in 1904. Pearson changed it from a Conservative to a Liberal newspaper but this failed to improve sales and in 1910 it was sold to Davison Dalziel. Five years later, Dalziel sold the Evening Standard to Edward Hulton.

Looking to expand his newspaper empire, the owner of the Daily Express, Lord Beaverbrook, purchased a controlling interest in the Evening Standard in 1926 and became sole owner of it in 1933. Although an influential newspaper, Beaverbook was unable to make the Evening Standard into a financial success.

Primary Sources

(1) Lord Beaverbrook first approached David Low to work for the Evening Standard in 1926. Although Beaverbrook offered to double his salary he refused. In 1929 Beaverbrook tried again to capture Britain's leading cartoonist.

He fixed me with a steady calculating eye and I put on my best Simple Simon look. The proposition was that I should leave The Star and draw cartoons for the Evening Standard at double my salary, whatever it was. Flabbergasted, I made refusing noises. "What do you want?" he asked. He was persistent. To close the subject I said I wished to take the advice of my friends H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett.

Negotiations ended when I called on Lord Beaverbrook one morning at noon, finding him sitting up in bed, a plaintive figure like Camille, reading the Bible. He had promised me four half-pages a week, but I wanted precise guarantees about presentation. "Dammit, Low," said Beaverbrook. "Do you want to edit the paper, too."

The Evening Standard advertised my coming lavishly. No one took seriously the announcements that I was to express independent views. that was a novel idea, except for an occasional series of signed articles by some big name. Free and regular expression by the staff cartoonist was unheard of and incredible.