Sunday Sport

It achieved on its launch in 1986 what few had thought possible; it succeeded in going even more downmarket than the News of the World.

Under the 18-year editorship of Tony Livesey (he left in August 2006 and is now a presenter for BBC North West) circulation peaked at 800,000. The current editor (since September 2007) is Nick Appleyard.

Success breeds success, and in 1991 the Sport spawned a daily sister paper, the imaginatively-named Daily Sport.

It’s a tabloid. It was founded by pornographer and one-time co-owner of Birmingham City FC David Sullivan but was sold by him (together with the Daily Sport) in 2007 and was published by Sport Newspapers Ltd, part of the Sport Media Group plc, until April 2011.

Its first advertising manager, Karren Brady, went on to become the first woman managing director of a Football League club (the aforementioned Birmingham City) when aged just 23.

The Sunday Sport‘s publication was suspended from 1 April 2011 after Sport Media Group ceased trading and appointed administrators; all 90 staff were made redundant.

Former owner David Sullivan stepped in to buy the Sunday Sport, but not the Daily Sport, in a private joint venture with some of the former staff. (It was the second time he’d intervened to rescue the paper, having provided a loan in 2009.) Publication resumed – in full colour throughout the newspaper – on 8 May 2011 with a new publishing company, Sunday Sport (2011) Ltd. In the process, the Sunday Sport took on its own website, having previously shared www.dailysport.com with the Daily Sport. It also moved headquarters within Manchester, with just eight staff occupying the new office initially, although that number had grown to over 30 by early 2012.

It acquired a new companion title in August 2011, the Midweek Sport; and a third title, the Weekend Sport, joined the series in January 2012.