John Reynolds, Media Week, 28 August 2008, 10:40am

Sport Media Group forecasts half-year profits of £6m

LONDON - Sport Media Group has announced that its pre-tax profits for the year to 31 July will surpass £6m, despite a flagging advertising market and a troubled start to the relaunch of its Daily Sport newspaper.

The Daily Sport, which relaunched on 21 April, last month appointed Murray Morse as a replacement for Barry McIlheney as the paper's editor-in-chief.

And the group said today (Thursday) that it had "seen some encouraging responses to the changes he has made".

The group, however, did not give further details about Morse's planned changes, though they are thought to include a harder focus on news stories across the relaunched paper.

In a shake-up of the group's executive board, David Bailey, who joined in March this year, will become its chairman replacing Simon Hume-Kendal, who will remain a non-executive director.

In June, the group issued a warning to the City that its full-year results would be lower than market expectations, warning that the relaunch of its flagship title had been disappointing.

In May, the group bought Flip Media, the publisher of lads' magazine Front and DVD World, for £265,000, as it looks to diversify beyond the Daily Sport newspaper.