The Independent
The Independent is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the Indy, it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003.[4] The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition.[5]
This article is about the British newspaper. For other uses, see The Independent (disambiguation).Type
Print newspaper (1986–2016)
Online only newspaper (2016–present)
- Broadsheet (1986–2003)
- Tabloid (2003–2016)
- Online only (2016–present)
Independent Digital News & Media Ltd
7 October 1986
26 March 2016 (print)
Alphabeta Building, 14–18 Finsbury Square, EC2A 1AH, London
The Independent on Sunday (1990–2016)
i (2010–2013)
Online only indy100 (2013–present)
The newspaper was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB Officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010. Lebedev also co-owned Novaya Gazeta alongside Mikhail Gorbachev until the latter's death on 30 August 2022.[6] In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in The Independent.[7]
The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. The website and mobile app had a combined monthly reach of 19,826,000 in 2021.[8] The Independent won the Brand of the Year Award in The Drum Awards for Online Media 2023.[9]
Content[edit]
Format and design[edit]
The Independent began publishing as a broadsheet, in a series of celebrated designs. The final version was designed by Carroll, Dempsey and Thirkell following a commission by Nicholas Garland who, along with Alexander Chancellor, was unhappy with designs produced by Raymond Hawkey and Michael McGuiness – on seeing the proposed designs, Chancellor had said "I thought we were joining a serious paper". The first edition was designed and implemented by Michael Crozier, who was Executive Editor, Design and Picture, from pre-launch in 1986 to 1994.[27]
From September 2003, the paper was produced in both broadsheet and tabloid-sized versions, with the same content in each. The tabloid edition was termed "compact" to distance itself from the more sensationalist reporting style usually associated with "tabloid" newspapers in the UK.[28] After launching in the London area and then in North West England,[29] the smaller format appeared gradually throughout the UK. Soon afterwards, Rupert Murdoch's Times followed suit, introducing its own tabloid-sized version.[30] Prior to these changes, The Independent had a daily circulation of around 217,500, the lowest of any major national British daily, a figure that climbed by 15% as of March 2004 (to 250,000). Throughout much of 2006, circulation stagnated at a quarter of a million. On 14 May 2004, The Independent produced its last weekday broadsheet, having stopped producing a Saturday broadsheet edition in January. The Independent on Sunday published its last simultaneous broadsheet on 9 October 2005, and thereafter followed a compact design until the print edition was discontinued.
On 12 April 2005, The Independent redesigned its layout to a more European feel, similar to France's Libération. The redesign was carried out by a Barcelona-based design studio. The weekday second section was subsumed within the main paper, double-page feature articles became common in the main news sections, and there were revisions to the front and back covers.[31] A new second section, "Extra", was introduced on 25 April 2006. It is similar to The Guardian's "G2" and The Times's "Times2", containing features, reportage and games, including sudoku. In June 2007, The Independent on Sunday consolidated its content into a news section which included sports and business, and a magazine focusing on life and culture.[32] On 23 September 2008, the main newspaper became full-colour, and "Extra" was replaced by an "Independent Life Supplement" focusing on different themes each day.[33]
Three weeks after the acquisition of the paper by Alexander Lebedev and Evgeny Lebedev in 2010, the paper was relaunched with another redesign on 20 April. The new format featured smaller headlines and a new pullout "Viewspaper" section, which contained the paper's comment and feature articles.[34]
Front pages[edit]
Following the 2003 switch in format, The Independent became known for its unorthodox and campaigning front pages, which frequently relied on images, graphics or lists rather than traditional headlines and written news content. For example, following the Kashmir earthquake in 2005, it used its front page to urge its readers to donate to its appeal fund, and following the publication of the Hutton Report into the death of British government scientist David Kelly, its front page simply carried the word "Whitewash?"[35] In 2003, the paper's editor, Simon Kelner, was named "Editor of the Year" at the What the Papers Say awards, partly in recognition of, according to the judges, his "often arresting and imaginative front-page designs".[36] In 2008, however, as he was stepping down as editor, he stated that it was possible to "overdo the formula" and that the style of the paper's front pages perhaps needed "reinvention".[37]
Under the subsequent editorship of Chris Blackhurst, the campaigning, poster-style front pages were scaled back in favour of more conventional news stories.[38]
Sections[edit]
The weekday, Saturday and Sunday editions of The Independent all included supplements and pull-out subsections:
Longford Prize[edit]
The Independent sponsors the Longford Prize, in memory of Lord Longford.[73]
The Independent was awarded "National Newspaper of the Year" for 2003[80][81] and the Independent on Sunday was awarded "Front Page of the Year" for 2014's "Here is the news, not the propaganda", printed on 5 October 2014.[80]
Independent journalists have won a range of British Press Awards, including:[80]
In January 2013, The Independent was nominated for the Responsible Media of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards.[83]
In popular culture[edit]
The Independent is regularly referenced in the Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso as the employer of recurring character Trent Crimm (James Lance), a sceptical reporter who is very critical of Ted's coaching but touched by his compassion.[84]