The London Evening Standard reported a loss of £28.3 million in the 10 months from December 10, 2008 to October 4, 2009, before it became a free title, according to the latest figures filed at Companies House, Media Guardian reported.

In February 2009, Alexander Lebedev acquired the Evening Standard from Daily Mail & General Trust, and changed it to a free publication on October 12.

The Evening Standard even reportedly broke for the first time under Lebedev's management last month, according to Media Guardian.

In the 10-month period, Evening Standard Limited reported a turnover of £22 million. Operating losses totaled £17 million, excluding £9.9 million of exceptional expenses, such as £3.4 million for redundancy costs. The total loss was £28.3 million.

Staff salaries and other costs totaled £12.3 million. The average number of employees was 346.

The data also showed that Lebedev bought the publication, which had about £1.08 million fixed assets at the time, for £6.7 million from DMGT.

Before relaunched as a free paper, Evening Standard was a daily paid-for publication with a cover price of 50 pence, according to Press Gazette.