Sport Media Group, publisher of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport, said today that while the business ended the year in profit, daily circulation of its tabloids had decreased since peaking in August.

SMG, which was bailed out in April by its former owner David Sullivan – who completed his takeover of football club West Ham with David Gold this month – said that trading in the five months to the end of December "continued to be encouraging".

"Although daily circulation of the newspaper failed to hold the peak levels of August, they remained above budget and the group traded profitably for the period," the company said in a trading update. "The board is confident that 2010 will see profitability recover further."

SMG had a tough start to 2009 with plummeting circulation leading to the company resigning its Audit Bureau of Circulations membership in March.

The publisher said that sales hit their "nadir" in March with the Daily Sport rebounding to 85,000 copies a day sales between Monday and Friday in early August. Sales of the Daily Sport on Saturday have also climbed from a low of about 45,000 to about 55,000 at that time. Sales of the Sunday Sport were about 76,000 at that time.

More ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/28/sport-media-group