SMG snapped up Chris Evans' Ginger Media

The group has this year completed the �225m purchase of Chris Evans' Ginger Media Group to add to last year's takeover of cinema advertising firm Pearl and Dean, and outdoor advertising group Primesight.

The company has also bought a 20% stake in Heart of Midlothian Football Club for �8m.

Rumours of an intended takeover by hotels and media giant Granada have subsided with the purchase of Ginger, and the group has also announced plans to expand its internet operations with a range of websites under the S1 brand.

The company, which is seeking to reposition itself as a Scottish-based rather than Scottish-centric media group, has not been without its problems.

Strike action

News of record profits for 1999 in February was followed by strike action by 160 television staff.

Journalists and technicians mounted picket lines outside Scottish Television's Cowcaddens headquarters and at Grampian Television in Aberdeen.

The strikes, called by broadcasting union Bectu and the National Union of Journalists, were mounted in protest at plans to introduce pay cuts, freezes or compulsory redundancy.

The group's new Sunday title, the Sunday Herald, has also been hit by problems of staffing and sales and distribution.

A number of key staff taken on for the launch of the paper in February 1999 have departed, and sales, although meeting the stated target of 50,000, have been disappointing.