Sportsman Newspaper To Cut Sunday Edition

The Sportsman newspaper, which went into administration last month, is to cut its Sunday edition, leaving the sports and betting paper to be published six times a week.

In a notice in tomorrow’s paper, the Sportsman will announce its “super value Saturday special”, which will cost £1.20. The weekend edition will publish racing cards and form for both days as well previews of weekend sport and football matches.

“Saturday’s edition is inevitably our strongest card and it makes sense to make this a ‘must-buy’ weekend purchase that has everything rather than making the customer buy two separate papers,” a spokesman said in the trade press.

The paper recently redesigned to emphasise its racing coverage and hopes the weekend edition will hit sales of the Sunday edition of rival Racing Post, which is owned by Trinity Mirror and costs £1.50.

The betting paper went into administration after its management failed to come up with the extra £3 million needed to shore up its finances, after the title failed to hit its circulation targets since its launch in March.

Earlier this month, it was believed that the title could secure a rescue bid (see The Sportsman Could Announce Rescue Bid). The administrators for the paper, UHY Hacker Young, have said that additional funding of £1 million is needed, although this may not be enough to secure the paper’s future in the long term (see The Sportsman Goes Into Administration).