By
Dominic Ponsford The UK’s first new national daily newspaper for 20
years, The Sportsman, is set for a spring launch as editor Charlie
Methven this week revealed the results of a raid on the national press
for senior staff.
Former editor of The Daily Telegraph’s Spy
column Methven has appointed chief City sub at the Telegraph, Seamus
Potter, as production chief on The Sportsman.
Another senior
Telegraph journalist, racing correspondent Richard Evans, has been made
associate editor. Evans was previously chief political correspondent
for The Times.
Financial Times production editor Neil Cook has
been made managing editor and Steve McKenlay, a former sports editor of
the Sunday Mirror, has been named head of news.
Racing editor is Simon Rowlands, who was editor of Time Form, a provider of specialist horse-racing information for punters.
Charlie Bain, previously a war correspondent for the Mail and the Mirror, has been named as a senior reporter.
According
to Methven, The Sportsman remains on target for a spring launch, in
time to take advantage of the betting spree that is expected to
surround next year’s World Cup in Germany.
He said: “I’m
absolutely delighted to have established a team of Fleet Street
professionals like the one we have. I’ve worked with most of them
before and therefore know at first hand just how talented they are.
“It’s also an enormous boost to the whole project that people like this want to come and work with us.”
The
Sportsman has a target circulation of 40,000 seven days a week across
the UK and Ireland, and promises to provide specialist information for
all gamblers. It is expected to employ a total of 90 journalists and
the paper is still recruiting racing reporters and racing analysts.
Former
Telegraph chief executive Jeremy Deedes is executive chairman and has
been using the experience he gained as a launch executive on Today.
Managing director is Max Aitken, a grandson of former Express Newspapers owner Lord Beaverbrook.
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