Lord Coe (pictured on left), chairman of the London organising committee, said the Standard was “as iconic as a London taxi cab, Nelson’s Column and Chelsea football club”.
The Mayor (pictured in middle) talking at a central London meeting of 2012 stakeholders and athletes said the paper was a “formidable and impartial organ” as he issued a rallying cry for Olympic sponsors and volunteers. “This is simply the most exciting thing we are going to do in London in our lifetime,” he said.
Lord Coe also praised the Standard’s Dispossessed campaign as “extraordinarily moving”.
He said that the Standard’s in-depth coverage of the Olympics — including prior to London winning host city status in 2005 — would help ensure that the Games were as good as possible. Lord Coe said, “We were a better bid because of the scrutiny you provided during that period. It will make us a better host city.”
London Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig (pictured on right) said its distribution would increase next month from 600,000 to 700,000 each weekday evening. “That means there will be probably two million readers every day during the Olympics,” he said.
“We have done more Olympic supplements, run more stories and generally been more active in covering the build-up to the Games than any other paper.”
For the full story on what Boris told the London Evening Standard meeting of 2012 sponsors go to: www.standard.co.uk/borisplans
