The thrust will be to cut losses and make trading with media agencies more "transparent".
Bert Hardy, who stepped in last week to handle operations in the wake of managing director Anderson's departure, is spearheading the review, with the full blessing of Associated Newspapers.
Central to the review will be the existing arrangements the Standard's sales team has with media agencies, and the paper's much talked-about rate card system, which was introduced by Anderson when he joined from Associated stablemate, Metro, in late 2002.
The current system saw agencies being offered free advertising space if they bought in bulk, albeit with an increase in rates – a model that Hardy is looking to examine and perhaps even scrap.
Hardy dismissed speculation that he will be just a short-term replacement for Anderson and pledged to carry out the review to its conclusion, saying: "We would like to get everybody trading the same way."
He insisted that "discipline" would be installed and a "more efficient" system of trading would be created.
"There was a policy introduced by Mike Anderson to look for bulk revenues and in return, get bulk space. I will be looking at that, for sure," said Hardy.
Dominic Williams, press director at Carat, said that he was not surprised Standard bosses were rethinking their strategy.
"I knew it wouldn't work two years ago. How much added value you get depends on the buyer and how sharp you are as an agency," he said.
"It was hard for them to justify their rate card increases and I definitely welcome a change."
But Tara Marus, board director at BJK&E, said that the Standard had had a "difficult time" trying to implement a transparent trading policy in the past.
She added: "It is very difficult to bring in new ad rates when they are continuing to decline in circulation.
"They should be continuing to invest in their editorial product, rather than changing around the ad rates."
Meanwhile, Hardy reiterated that there were no plans to axe the paper's early-day freesheet, Standard Lite.
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