Media Perspective: Rival London paper will have a tough job to beat the Standard.(The Evening Standard, Associated Newspapers Holdings PLC)

The battle for ownership of the London newspaper market is hotting up. The Evening Standard has had some pretty fierce brushes with the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, and now the Mayor's office is running a tender for the distribution of a London freesheet that could dent the Standard's already falling circulation.

Not that Veronica Wadley, the Standard's editor for the past four-and-a-half years, seems concerned about the prospect of competition. She's putting the finishing touches to some nip-tuck surgery on the Standard that should see the light of day in the next week. She is so confident about things that she even has some kind words for Ken: 'We have a healthy relationship. All journalists should be sceptical of people in power but if you look at Ken's response to 7/7, that's when he really grew into the role.'

The Standard will start to use more colour, following Associated Newspapers' investment last year in colour presses, and there will also be more news pages and a section colour-coding system similar to those introduced by magazines such as Easy Living.

You could take the view that it's a difficult time for Wadley and her newspaper. Circulation of the paid-for editions continues to decline, down 6.4 per cent year on year in March to 324,123 copies. If you include Standard Lite, the Standard can still claim a circulation of more than 400,000, but the titles are essentially different products.

Wadley is proud of the evolution of ...