“We are pleased to jointly announce today that, as a result of close collaborative working with TfL, the London Evening Standard is officially 'Games Ready'.
The London Evening Standard and TfL have been through an extensive process of planning in the light of the changes to certain parts of London's road network necessary to deliver a successful Games while keeping London moving. These include the steps to enable LOCOG to hold events to be held in central London such as the Marathon and cycling races as well as those at the Olympic Park in Stratford.
As a result of this planning, the London Evening Standard is confident that its distribution network will work effectively and ensure that Londoners and visitors receive London's leading newspaper on time. Plans have been created that will not only see the London Evening Standard's usual 700,000 copies available in the same locations and at the same time as they are currently but flexibility has been built in so that that additional or later copies can also be provided if required.
As the newspaper of the Olympic city, the London Evening Standard has worked hard to ensure that its editorial and commercial package for the Olympics is of the highest standard and the process followed with TfL has ensured that there will be the underlying delivery infrastructure to support this package.
Matt Harrison, Sales & Marketing Director of the London Evening Standard adds, "We have worked very closely with TfL on our preparations ahead of Games and welcome the very detailed information they have made available to us. The Standard is one of the most time sensitive delivery operations in the world but we always manage to ensure the paper is available for our 1.6 million readers despite the regular challenges London throws at us. We are proud to be the first host city newspaper to cover 3 Olympic Games and have supported the Games from the bid stage. The London Evening Standard has an important role to play during the Olympics, keeping both Londoners and Visitors informed and up to date, as well as explaining the Legacy of the Games and stimulating debate. Our preparations have been extensive and we will continue to work with partners like TfL to ensure that when the world comes to London in 2012, the London Evening Standard will be ready to welcome them.""
