TheSportsman Newspaper Timeline

March 22: The Sportsman launches, missing the Cheltenham Festival and sells 65,000 copies on its debut.

April: The initial sales of of 21,800 copies is well below the break-even target of 40,000 copies.

May: Mark Dixon, the marketing director, leaves the paper less than two months after its launch to set up a sports marketing agency. May's sales figure is 22,333.

June: The Sportsman switches distributors from the Telegraph Group to Advantage.

July 20: The paper goes into administration and vows to continue publishing, assuring staff their wages and jobs are safe. Joint administrators Peter Kubick and Andrew Andronikou from UHY Hacker Young are appointed.

August 15: Administrators make five staff redundant.

August 20: Administrators advertise the Sportsman for sale in the Sunday Times, revealing its first year turnover is expected to be £4m. The paper relaunches with a greater emphasis on racing.

August 30: The Sportsman announces that it is dropping its Sunday edition, previously one of the strongest-selling issues.

September 26: An administrators' letter to creditors reveals that the paper raised a total of £11.5m prior to its launch but was placed into administration just four months later with debts of £3.9m.

October 5: The Sportsman closes.

Source: Guardian