The Independent

1980s

Launched in 1986, the first issue of The Independent was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.^[6][7] It was produced by Newspaper Publishing plc and created by Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds. All three partners were former journalists at The Daily Telegraph who had left the paper towards the end of Lord Hartwell's ownership. Marcus Sieff was the first chairman of Newspaper Publishing, and Whittam Smith took control of the paper.^[8]

The paper was created at a time of a fundamental change in British newspaper publishing. Rupert Murdoch was challenging long-accepted practices of the print unions and ultimately defeated them in the Wapping dispute. Consequently, production costs could be reduced which created openings for more competition.^[9] The Independent attracted some of the staff from the two Murdoch broadsheets who had chosen not to move to his company's new headquarters. Launched with the advertising slogan "It is. Are you?",^[10] and challenging both The Guardian for centre-left readers and The Times as the newspaper of record, The Independent reached a circulation of more than 400,000 by 1989.^[11]

1990s

When The Independent launched The Independent on Sunday in 1990,^[12] sales were less than anticipated, partly due to the launch of the Sunday Correspondent^[13] four months prior, although this direct rival closed at the end of November 1990.^[14]

In the 1990s, The Independent was faced with price cutting by the Murdoch titles, and started an advertising campaign accusing The Times and The Daily Telegraph of reflecting the views of their proprietors, Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black. It featured spoofs of the other papers' mastheads with the words The Rupert Murdoch or The Conrad Black, with The Independent below the main title.^[11]

Newspaper Publishing had financial problems. A number of other media companies were interested in the paper. Tony O'Reilly's media group and Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) had bought a stake of about a third each by mid-1994. In March 1995, Newspaper Publishing was restructured with a rights issue, splitting the shareholding into O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (43%), MGN (43%), and Prisa (publisher of El País) (12%).^[15]

In 1996, there was further refinancing,^[16] and Andrew Marr was appointed editor of The Independent.^[17] In 1998, O'Reilly bought the other shares of the company for £30 million, and assumed the company's debt,^[18] and Rosie Boycott also became editor.^[19]

Boycott left in April 1998 to join the Daily Express, and Marr left in May 1998, later becoming the BBC's political editor. Simon Kelner was appointed as the editor. By this time, the circulation had fallen below 200,000. Independent News spent heavily to increase circulation, and the paper went through several redesigns. While circulation increased, it did not approach the level which had been achieved in 1989, or restore profitability. Job cuts and financial controls reduced the morale of journalists and the quality of the product.^[20]

2000s

Ivan Fallon, on the board since 1995 and formerly a key figure at The Sunday Times, replaced Hopkins as head of Independent News & Media in July 2002. By mid-2004, the newspaper was losing £5 million per year. A gradual improvement meant that by 2006, circulation was at a nine-year high.^[20]

In November 2008, following further staff cuts, production was moved to Northcliffe House, in Kensington High Street, the headquarters of Associated Newspapers.^[21] The two newspaper groups' editorial, management and commercial operations remained separate.^[22]

2010s

On 25 March 2010, Independent News & Media sold the newspaper to a new company owned by the family of Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev for a nominal £1 fee and £9.25 million over the next 10 months, choosing this option over closing The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, which would have cost £28 million and £40 million respectively, due to long-term contracts. Alexander's son Evgeny became chairman of the new company, with Alexander becoming a board director.^[23] In 2009, Lebedev had bought a controlling stake in the London Evening Standard. Two weeks later, editor Roger Alton resigned.^[24]

In July 2011, The Independent's columnist Johann Hari was stripped of the Orwell Prize he had won in 2008 after claims, to which Hari later admitted,^[25] of plagiarism and inaccuracy.^[26] In January 2012, Chris Blackhurst, editor of The Independent, told the Leveson inquiry that the scandal had "severely damaged" the newspaper's reputation. He nevertheless told the inquiry that Hari would return as a columnist in "four to five weeks".^[27] Hari later announced that he would not return to The Independent.^[28] Jonathan Foreman contrasted The Independent's reaction to the scandal unfavorably with the reaction of American newspapers to similar incidents such as the Jayson Blair case, which led to resignations of editors, "deep soul-searching", and "new standards of exactitude being imposed".^[29] The historian Guy Walters suggested that Hari's fabrications had been an open secret among the newspaper's staff and that their internal inquiry was a "facesaving exercise".^[30]

The Independent and The Independent on Sunday endorsed "Remain" in the Brexit referendum.^[31]

In March 2016, The Independent closed its print edition to become a pure play digital media company. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016. The Independent on Sunday published its last edition on 20 March 2016 and was closed.^[7][32]

In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in The Independent.^[33][34] Independent Arabia was launched in October 2018. It is published under licence, and owned and managed by Saudi Research and Media Group (SRMG), a major publishing organisation with close ties to the Saudi royal family.^[35]

2020s

In September 2020, The Independent launched Independent en Español, a wholly owned and operated Spanish language edition.^[36]

Geordie Greig was appointed The Independent's Editor-in-Chief in January 2023. He oversaw a period of editorial investment.^[37] Later that year, Chief Executive Zach Leonard moved to the United States as Global COO and President (North America), and former Editor Christian Broughton was appointed Chief Executive.^[38] Louise Thomas was appointed US Editor in March 2024.^[39]

In January 2026, The Independent was in talks to take commercial and digital control of The Evening Standard.^[40] The partnership was agreed in April 2026, with The Evening Standard staying as a separate company and The Independent also taking control of print advertising.^[41]

Format and design

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.^[42]

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,^[43] preferring to remain focused on hard news (similarly to the tabloid-size edition of The Times.)^[44] The smaller format appeared gradually throughout the UK. Soon afterwards, Rupert Murdoch's Times followed suit, introducing its own tabloid-sized version.^[45] 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).^[46] 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.^[47] 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.^[48]

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.^[49] 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.^[50] On 23 September 2008, the main newspaper became full-color, and "Extra" was replaced by an "Independent Life Supplement" focusing on different themes each day.^[51]

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.^[52]

Front pages

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?"^[53] 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".^[54] In 2008, 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".^[55]

Under the subsequent editorship of Chris Blackhurst, the campaigning, poster-style front pages were scaled back in favour of more conventional news stories.^[56]

Online presence

The Independent's original website launched in 1996. On 23 January 2008, The Independent relaunched its online edition.^[57][58]

From 2009, the website started carrying short video news bulletins provided by the Al Jazeera English news channel.^[59] 

The Independent launched Independent TV in 2020 to increase video journalism, which was a growth area for the business.^[60] In March 2023 The Independent released The Body in the Woods, a feature-length documentary by its Chief International Correspondent, Bel Trew, about the Ukraine war. Video content can be viewed on their website, smart TV app, and on their mobile app.^[61]

Editors

There have also been various guest editors over the years, such as Elton John on 1 December 2010, The Body Shop's Anita Roddick on 19 June 2003 and U2's Bono in 2006.^[78][79][80]

Writers and columnists

Predominantly in The Independent

Predominantly The Independent on Sunday

The Independent on Sunday

The Independent on Sunday (IoS) was the Sunday sister newspaper of The Independent. It ceased to exist in 2016, the last edition being published on 20 March.^[32]

The i Paper

In October 2010, the i, a compact newspaper, was launched. The i is a separate newspaper but uses some of the same editorial staff.^[85] It was later sold to regional newspaper company Johnston Press,^[86] before being sold again.^[87] It currently belongs to Daily Mail and General Trust.^[88]

Indy100

The online news site was originally called i100 and launched in 2014.^[89] It was renamed to indy100 in February 2016.^[90]

The (RED) Independent

The Independent supported U2 lead singer Bono's Product RED brand by creating The (RED) Independent, an occasional edition that gave half the day's proceeds to the charity. The first edition was in May 2006. Edited by Bono, it drew high sales.^[91][92]

A September 2006 edition of The (RED) Independent, designed by fashion designer Giorgio Armani, drew controversy due to its cover shot, showing model Kate Moss in blackface for an article about AIDS in Africa.^[93]

The Pride List

The Pride List started out as The Pink List in 2000, before becoming The Rainbow List. It celebrates prominent LGBT people in the UK. It became The Pride List in 2023 when The Independent became Pride in London's exclusive news partner.^[94]

BuzzFeed and HuffPost

With the aim of becoming "Britain’s biggest publisher network for gen Z and millennial audiences”, in March 2024 The Independent took over BuzzFeed and HuffPost in the UK, agreeing a multi year licensing deal.^[95][96]