Editorial head leaves troubled Sport Media Group

His departure follows the announcement from Sport Media Group yesterday that it has put The Daily and Sunday Sport up for sale - 18 months after being purchased by the group for £50m.

Mcllheney was hired as editorial head of Sport Media Group in January with a brief to shift the two newspapers away from their sleazy image and into lads' mag territory.

He subsequently oversaw the £1m relaunch of the Daily Sport as a lads' mag offering.

He then moved to a part-time role as editorial director at the group and has worked on the development of lads' title, Front magazine.

Mcllheney said he would be looking at new opportunities across newspapers and magazines.

During his 21 years at Emap, he held a number of roles, including publishing FHM, editing Smash Hits, plus launching Empire, Heat and Zoo.

Sport Media Group yesterday (24 February) revealed it was looking to offload the two titles at its annual general meeting. In January, SPMG was forced to slash the value of its media titles to £18.4m

The company reported a pre-tax loss of £18.2m in the year ending 31 July 2008 - significantly down from a £5.3m profit the year before.