It's official - The Independent is becoming an online-only title, with its print editions due to close next month after almost 30 years.
Owners ESI confirmed the news on Friday (February 12). London's Evening Standard will continue as both a print and online title.
"The newspaper industry is changing, and that change is being driven by readers. They're showing us that the future is digital," said The Independent's owner Evgeny Lebedev.
"This decision preserves the Independent brand and allows us to continue to invest in the high quality editorial content that is attracting more and more readers to our online platforms."
Levedev hailed The Independent's "track record of innovation" and "proud heritage as Britain's first truly independent national quality title", saying that the online-only move would "secure the future of these vitally important editorial values".
It's expected that The Independent On Sunday's last print edition will go on sale on March 20, with the final print edition of The Independent hitting newsstands on March 26. The paper was first published on October 7, 1986.
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While it is expected that there will be some redundancies among full-time editorial staff, the number of roles affected is still subject to consultation.
ESI has also promised to create 25 new digital content roles as part of the expansion of its digital brand, and plans to rebrand i100.co.uk as indy100.com.
The brand's i title will be sold to Johnston Press, subject to approval from their shareholders.
Kate (they/she) is a freelance writer, editor, digital editorial trainer and data technician who first joined Digital Spy as an overnight freelance sub-editor in January 2011, after studying a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Salford University while working part-time as a social researcher.
In July 2013, Kate joined the DS staff team as chief sub-editor and following six years as the site's managing editor, their role expanded to incorporate Hearst UK's entertainment portfolio (including Digital Spy and its sibling titles Best and Inside Soap) between late 2024 and early 2026.
Kate has worked as a writer and editor since 2006, with bylines syndicated across the Hearst network and at organisations including Metro. They started their career as a TV production runner for the BBC and contributed to various music websites, blogs and zines while based in Manchester.
During her time at DS, Kate has previously been a freelance sub-editor and chief sub-editor.
Kate's team at Digital Spy were proudly nominated in the Best Subbing/Production Team category at the BSME Talent Awards 2022. Over the years, she has contributed to coverage of many, many Prime Days and Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and was part of the team that launched the DS weekly TV newsletter in November 2019 – followed by the Top of the Shops e-commerce newsletter in May 2024.
Kate's screen passions include Taskmaster (their biggest career regret remains turning down the opportunity to visit the house), nature documentaries, and live sport (up there with the greatest of all soap operas although if asked to choose, it's Corrie… every time).
Her highlights while working at DS have included interviewing Stevie Nicks on the red carpet for her documentary In Your Dreams, sitting at a press roundtable with Formula 1 commentary icon Murray Walker, watching a life-sized LEGO car being driven around Silverstone, writing an album-by-album retrospective of Lady Gaga's genre-defying career for Living Legends, and raising awareness of receiving and understanding a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis through the lens of Bianca and Freddie's EastEnders storyline.
Upon remembering to log off the internet, Kate enjoys live theatre, dance and comedy, appreciating nature, baking (badly), tending a recently-rented allotment (equally badly) and pampering one very spoiled rescue cat named Jolene.
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