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March 18, 2009

Sport Media Group looks to cut a third of staff

By Owen Amos

About 20 staff at Sport Media Group, owners of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport, could be made redundant as the company seeks to cut costs.

Staff were told this week that the company is looking to make £750,000 a year in savings. The company, which also runs men’s magazine Front, has about 60 staff in total.

Press Gazette understands that management have requested volunteers for redundancy. If not enough volunteers come forward, compulsory redundancies could be made.

Last month, Sport Media Group announced it was seeking to sell all, or part of, its business.

In January, it announced a pre-tax loss of £18.2m in the year ending 31 July 2008 – down from a £5.3m profit in the previous year. It said at the time that it needed to “maintain its policy of cost-cutting”.

In the same month, according to ABC, the Sunday Sport sold 70,796 copies a week, down 18.91 per cent year on year. The Daily Sport sold 72,592 – down 28.59 per cent. The papers have since withdrawn from ABC auditing.

Sport editor-in-chief Murray Morse told Press Gazette he could not comment. Chief executive officer Andrew Fickling was unavailable.

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