Porn baron brushed off by the People

SOFT-PORN publishing millionaire David Sullivan claims he has again been rebuffed in his attempts to buy the Sunday People. Last December, he offered £45m for the ailing newspaper, which has lost 7.5% of its circulation over the past year. But a spokesman for Sunday People owner Trinity Mirror last week insisted: 'There is no For Sale sign over the Sunday People. That is all we are prepared to say.'

Last month, Sullivan put his Sport Newspapers group's 78% stake in Birmingham City - worth about £21m - on the market. He has also shelved plans to launch a new Sunday newspaper because of falling media advertising revenue. He had planned to invest £10m in a paper to take on the Sunday People and the News of the World.

Sullivan said: 'The project has been put on the back burner for the moment. It would have been madness to launch a paper in the middle of an advertising slump.'

But he claimed that sales of his Sunday Sport have risen by 14.5% over the year and now average 220,000 a week. 'We no longer make up stories,' he said. 'You will find much more news and proper stories in the paper these days.' Sullivan also said he had decided against buying Sunday Business. It is being touted for sale by the Barclay Brothers, owners of the Scotsman newspapers.