The London Evening Standard has achieved its aim of making a profit within three years of going free.

Andrew Mullins, the paper's managing director, says that in the year up to 30 September, the Standard managed to return a profit of just over £1m.

The transformation from loss into profit is remarkable when set against the background of the paper's enormous losses when it was a paid-for title.

At the time the paper went free, on 10 October 2009, the previous quarter's figures, if annualised, would have registered a loss of £30m.

After one year as a free, the loss was £16.9m. In the second year, from October 2010 to September 2011, the loss had been reduced to £7m.

Though the £1m profit figure for the 12 months up to September this year is still subject to auditing, Mullins and the owner, Evgeny Lebedev, are confident of the paper's change in fortune.

"It has been tough work," says Mullins, "and it remains tough because the advertising outlook remains bleak. But we are confident of returning a modest profit in the coming year too."

Evidently, the figures are unaffected by the merger of some Standard editorial departments with those of The Independent - such as business and sport.

It was revealed in July that the publishing company controlled by Lebedev reported a 22.5% increase in pre-tax losses to £27.4m in the year up to 2 October 2011. Lebedev's company owns 74.1% of the Standard and the rest is owned by the Daily Mail & General Trust.

Lebedev is extremely keen for the Standard to secure the licence to run the local TV channel in London in the belief that it will substantially enhance the Standard brand.

He believes that the paper's editorial and commercial skills can be translated effectively from print to TV. According to the bid document, the service - provisionally called London Live - will offer an 18-hour-a-day channel covering news, current affairs, entertainment and sport backed by an annual marketing support of £5m.

The Standard's bid is one of five received by Ofcom for the right to launch the capital's television service.