Charlotte Ross stands down as acting editor of the Evening Standard with Jack Lefley taking the reins
Charlotte Ross has stood down from her role as Acting Editor of the Evening Standard, just nine months after taking the top spot from Emily Sheffield.
Ross has worked at the London freesheet for 16 years, starting out as an Assistant Editor and working her way up the ranks.
Evening Standard veteran Jack Lefley will take over from Ross immediately, having started his own career at the paper as a reporter back in 2006.
Commenting on her departure, Ross said: “The Evening Standard is quite simply an iconic brand with a brilliant team of journalists – past and present – who I love, respect and have enjoyed working with enormously.
It has been an immense privilege to work here during such a key part of my professional life. There has never been a dull day. I will miss it hugely.”
Meanwhile, the rag’s chief executive Charles Yardley said: “We will greatly miss the ideas, focus, intelligence and energy that Charlotte brought to the Standard.
She is a fantastic team player with an entrepreneurial approach and clear editorial vision that have been central to the business for a long time. I wish her well in the next chapter of her brilliant career.”
Earlier this month, the commuter paper posted a loss of £14m, as well as a 36 per cent year-on-year turnover dip from £44m to £28m last year.
The media firm said that despite work from home orders being lifted, the pandemic continued to impact advertising revenue.
However, the firm’s outlook was relatively positive, citing the “consistent improvement in commuter numbers” and print revenue.
The Evening Standard is majority owned by Russian-British business titan Evgeny Lebedev, who also owns the Independent and was awarded a peerage by Boris Johnson last year.