New editor for the Evening Standard

VERONICA WADLEY is stepping down after seven years as editor of the Evening Standard.

Ms Wadley, who was formerly a deputy editor of the Daily Mail, is to pursue new interests in journalism.

Geordie Greig is to be the new editor of the Evening Standard.*

He has been editor of the society magazine Tatler since 1999, during which period he took the magazine to the highest ever circulation figure in its 300-year history.

* On 21 January 2009, DMGT announced that its newspaper division, Associated Newspapers Ltd, had agreed the sale of a majority interest in the Evening Standard for a nominal sum to Evening Press Ltd, a company formed by Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny Lebedev and owned by Lebedev Holdings Ltd.

The deal is due to be completed in the second half of February. A new company, Evening Standard Ltd, has been established to own the Evening Standard, in which Associated Newspapers will be a minority shareholder.

Mr Greig's position will have to be ratified by the Editorial Committee being set up to safeguard the paper's independence.