More popular than Jesus Cleave's article mentioned that Lennon was "reading extensively about religion", and quoted a comment he made: Cleave's interview with Lennon was published in the "Evening Standard" in March 1966 and provoked no public reaction in the UK. Church attendance there was in decline and the Christian churches were making no secret of the need to transform their image into something more relevant to modern times. Music historian Jonathan Gould wrote, "The satire comedians had had a field day with the increasingly desperate attempts of the Church to make itself seem more relevant ('Don't call me vicar, call me "Dick" ...')."
Evening Standard evening edition eclipsed its morning counterpart. Both "The Standard" and the "Evening Standard" were acquired by C. Arthur Pearson in 1904. In May 1915, Edward Hulton purchased the "Evening Standard" from Davison Dalziel. Dalziel had purchased both papers in 1910, and closed "The Standard", the morning paper, in 1916. Hulton introduced the gossip column "Londoner's Diary", originally billed as "a column written by gentlemen for gentlemen". In 1923, Lord Beaverbrook, owner of the "Daily Express", bought Hulton's newspapers, although he sold them shortly thereafter to the "Daily Mail"s owner Lord Rothermere, with the exception of the "Standard". It became a