Interview: Charlie Methven, The Sportsman (Evening Standard)

By David Rowan

On the third floor of an impressively modern riverside block, a pink-socked and gelled-haired 29-year-old former gossip columnist breezes excitedly past workmen to survey his nascent publishing empire. Gliding through 11,000 sq ft of prime Hammersmith office space, Charlie Methven, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sportsman, is explaining where his 125 staff will sit, how his incentive scheme will keep them focused, and which window will afford the best view of the Oxford & Cambridge boat race.

With the first edition due off the presses within weeks, Methven, an amiably enthusiastic Old Etonian, appears remarkably unruffled about what will be the biggest UK national newspaper launch for 20 years. "We're on track, and will definitely launch in March or April," he says, walking towards the 40 or so journalists tapping vigorously into their keyboards. "Twenty more are arriving next week, another 20 the following week, and 40 more through February. Even as we speak, Jeremy's down at the Telegraph signing the distribution contract." Jeremy Deedes, that is, the former Telegraph and Evening Standard executive who, along with Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook's great-grandson, are gambling with Methven - and some of their own money - that the demand will be there for a seven-day-a-week sports-betting newspaper. Deedes serves as fulltime chairman, Aitken as MD.

The initiative was Methven's who, after bringing his friends Ben and Zac Goldsmith on board last summer as first-stage investors, expects to clinch the last and biggest chunk of the £12 million start-up costs any day now. The Goldsmith brothers' role, he says, is entirely hands-off - "though Ben called me the other day to see if I'd be interested in him getting Imran Khan as a contributor. Now that's the perfect investor."

With the domestic gambling market valued at almost £50 billion, they are calculating that their combined print and online venture will capitalise both on punters' fascination for sports - ranging from racing to rugby - as well as online betting sites' quest for ever more places to advertise. The launch date, as well as the cover price, remain under discussion, but Methven insists that his title will be well established for the World Cup in June. "That will be the biggest gambling event in history," he points out. "There are a number of springboards well before that we could use - the Cheltenham Festival is one, the Grand National another."

At up to 128 tabloid pages, with the initial print run "in six figures", the paper will be "middle market" in look and feel, he says - upbeat and amusing rather than austerely serious. "Actually, it will be more Evening Standard than anything else," he reflects. "The Standard's strength is that very few people think it's above them, and very few below them. Gambling, too, crosses all divides - from the Duke of Marlborough to the guy in the backstreet betting shop, they're all interested fundamentally in the same thing."

And if the Racing Post plays dirty to protect its lucrative monopoly - which earns Trinity Mirror £18 million profit on its £49 million turnover? "They're not occupying our time massively," he says. "We don't see the Post as a direct rival. Its title tells you what it is - a trade paper. It's a good trade paper, and I'll carry on reading it, but I don't see it as in our marketplace."

. . . ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE . . .
.. . . AND READ MORE MEDIA INTERVIEWS HERE . . .