The London-based Evening Standard newspaper today launches an unprecedented 3-week-long pr campaign to tell Londoners it is "sorry" for the way it has conducted itself in the past, reports the Guardian's Roy Greenslade.

The UK capital's ubiquitous buses and tubes will be emblazoned with one of several messages, each beginning with the word "sorry." One message says "Sorry for losing touch", while other messages apologise for the paper's negative reporting, taking readers for granted, being complacent and being predictable. Some messages will also appear on poster boards around the city.

The ad campaign is the first part of a 3-week "publicity blitz" culminating in the launch of a new-look Evening Standard on May 11, says Greenslade who, coincidentally, also writes a weekly column for the ES. The ads will not actually bear the Evening Standard name, but will, instead, carry the distinctive Eros logo. The ad campaign is the brainchild of global advertising agency, McCann Erickson.

The publicity campaign was given the go-ahead following research work commissioned by editor Geordie Greig, who took over the reigns from Veronica Wadley in February. Greig's appointment came just after Alexander Lebedev bought the Evening Standard from the Daily Mail & General Trust for £1. DMGT retain a 24.9% interest.

According to Greenslade the "market research evidently discovered that Londoners considered the paper to be too negative, not celebratory enough and guilty of failing to cater for the capital's needs. A great city with great facilities was being persistently talked down."

In response to the findings, Greig decided that honesty was the best policy and, in a bid to make a clean break from the past, the ES is admitting it has made mistakes. Earlier this year, Greig had promised that under his leadership, the Standard would take on a "fundamentally optimistic view of life."

The Evening Standard, which has seen circulation drop since a spate of free papers entered the London stage, is hoping to reengage with readers and to reassure them that the era of negative reporting is over. If it can get a decent proportion of the city's 7.5 million residents at least talking about it, the Evening Standard may still be able to turn things around.

Source: Guardian.co.uk