Ex-Leeds chief behind free sports magazine
Saturday 11 March 2006
Latest in Business News
On Facebook
Chris Akers, the internet and sports entrepreneur, started a free weekly sports betting magazine yesterday, two weeks before the launch of The Sportsman, a paid-for daily aimed at the same market.
About 30,00 copies of the 64-page magazine, TakeSport, were distributed outside London rail and Tube stations. The title's circulation and geographical reach will expand in the coming weeks.
Mr Akers, who sold his Sports Internet business to BSkyB for £301m in 2000 and is the former chairman of Leeds Sporting, a group that used to own Leeds United Football Club, said he would try to demonstrate that it was possible to produce a high-quality title without the sort of lavish budget planned for The Sportsman. TakeSport, 80 per cent owned by Mr Akers, has a "six figures" budget behind it.
TakeSport will take editorial content from the Press Association news agency, while The Sportsman, backed by a former Telegraph Group chief executive, Jeremy Deedes, is to launch on 22 March - Budget Day - with a budget of £12m and a staff of 120.
Mr Akers said: "The paid-for market is threatened. Within three to four years, cover prices will be significantly reduced, if not eliminated."
- 1 Pete Doherty: I was a bit unhinged
- 2 Vatican told to pay taxes as Italy tackles budget crisis
- 3 Greeks rage at erosion of sovereignty while leaders haggle over deal
- 4 Swiss to launch a space 'janitor'
- 5 Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and politics
- 6 Energy watchdog tells big firms: cut prices or else
- 7 Prove you gave away Chechen money, charities tell Hilary Swank
- 1 Vatican told to pay taxes as Italy tackles budget crisis
- 2 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 3 Pete Doherty: I was a bit unhinged
- 4 Khader Adnan: The West Bank's Bobby Sands
- 5 Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and politics
- 6 'My 10 days at an Eton summer school was a real shock to the system'
- 7 WikiLeaks takes aim at an unlikely new victim: Unesco
- 8 Prehistoric cybermen? Sardinia's lost warriors rise from the dust
- 9 Can you master a language in a weekend?
- 10 The artist vandalising advertising with poetry
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a family adventure for four in the new Subaru XV
Enjoy a three-nights family adventure at Slaley Hall Resort, Northumberland courtesy to Subaru XV
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Inside the tiny town that will topple Sarkozy
Claire Foy: Criticism, tumours and embarrassing sex scenes
Wilderness and wildlife in Australia’s Top End
48 Hours: Marrakech




Comments