Media: Talk of the Trade: 'Standard' sales up

THE London Evening Standard is selling an extra 50,000 copies on Fridays, 10 per cent more than its regular circulation of 500,000, since it began to distribute its free weekly magazine section, ES Magazine, six weeks ago. Anthony Hilton, the paper's managing director, says this is a better increase than he expected. Although the old monthly ES Magazine raised sales by about 15 per cent on the day it appeared, the total number of extra readers over the month is now significantly higher. In spite of that, the new magazine is not budgeted to make a profit in its first year. It is of the enhanced newsprint type pioneered by the Independent on Sunday. 'The old-style glossy supplement may be coming to the end of its days,' says Mr Hilton.