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June 10, 2009

Relaunched Sport magazine retains editorial team

By Alison Battisby

Free weekly magazine Sport will relaunch on Friday after being saved by the owner of Talksport.

The magazine closed in April after its French parent company Sport Media & Strategy went into administration.

UTV Media, which owns Talksport and the ITV franchise in Northern Ireland, signed a deal to buy Sport magazine last month.

Magazine editor Simon Caney said it was important for the magazine to maintain the same brand and identity in order to be instantly recognisable.

He said: “We were always confident that our editorial approach had created a magazine that was well-loved and eagerly anticipated by our audience.

“As far as that approach is concerned, nothing has changed and we will be delivering exclusive interviews with some of the biggest sporting stars in the world from the outset.”

Caney revealed that the magazine might work together with Talksport on future projects, but said that the main objective was to get Sport up and running again.

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He said: “As long as our editorial values don’t got muddled it makes sense, but the management have very much said there is no pressure and they want us to concentrate on Sport at the moment.”

UTV Media also has plans to increase Sport’s distribution, further than London tube stations and gyms across the country.

Caney said it would be “silly” not to look into other options in order to expand nationwide.

“This could be done via a number of different avenues like through retailers, or with local newspapers,” he said.

Sport managing director Adam Bullock told The Guardian that plans to increase distribution are definitely going to happen in time for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

“We have an aggressive plan to take the brand forward taking us up to the World Cup,” he said.

“I would call it a distribution plan that is designed to be effective and editorially sympathetic to go beyond the limited reach we have outside of London currently.”

The magazine is distributed in London and previously had a circulation of 317,000.

On the staffing front, Caney said: “Essentially we are the same team. We have lost one or two on the way who left to pursue other things, but no one lost their jobs as a result of the closure.”

The relaunched magazine has ten editorial staff. Friday’s issue will feature an exclusive interview with Formula 1 World Championship leader Jenson Button.

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