Evening Standard says sorry ahead of relaunch

He may have only been in the job for five minutes but Geordie Greig, the new editor of the Evening Standard, isn't hanging about when it comes to getting Londoners to read the paper again. The 48-year-old has just launched one of the most daring publicity campaigns ever seen in the newspaper industry that apologises for the paper's past endeavours.

As of this week, buses and tubes around the capital will run a series of ad posters for the next three weeks that read: "Sorry for losing touch", "Sorry for being negative", "Sorry for taking you for granted", "Sorry for being complacent" and "Sorry for being predictable". The Evening Standard does not put its name to the ads, opting to depict its Eros logo instead.

The mammoth apology comes after research commissioned by Greig, found that the majority of Londoners felt that the paper had become too negative and oblivious to reader's concerns. Speaking to the Guardian, a senior Standard executive said: "With these ads we're telling readers, 'OK, we hear what you're saying. Now we're aware of that ourselves and want to put it right. We want to embrace readers and engage with London'." The ads will be followed by the paper's relaunch on May 11 - the details of which are being kept tightly under wraps.

While some may applaud the former Tatler editor's decision to take a direct approach to the findings, his predecessor Veronica Wadley isn't likely to be one of them. The 57-year-old, who edited the paper for seven years before leaving in March, will undoubtedly see the campaign as a smear against her editorship. Wadley was often criticised for her anti-Labour stance while at the helm and was accused of being particularly hostile to former Mayor Ken Livingstone.

Alexander Lebedev, the Russian billionaire who bought the paper for £1 in January will be hoping that the move goes some way in getting the title back into profit. The tycoon is currently feeling the pinch and is reportedly unable to pay journalists on his Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta after running temporarily out of money. ·