It's been a common theme for a long while at least in the UK, and from my very casual observations much of western Europe. I know its quite common in Australia (although sport often makes the front pages as well) too, and I'm not so sure about the US (although something is telling me the back-pages in many American publications have been more reserved for the classified ads, whereas in the UK these tend to break up the "news" and the "sports"). Is there a rough time frame when this started to happen.
Also is there a specific reason as to why this happened, was there some revolutionary who decided it was a better idea, or was it just a gradual evolution.
NB: I had a very quick search for this and couldn't find anything specific.
wow ,neat topic. one suggestion i have on this, was that the sporting pages really started out as the betting book or betting lines that are common from the french revolution period. sort of the first paid content, i mean i could see this happening. if the front page is respected content with a serious subject it would make sense that advise in the back could change the betting line. it was a way to supplement the front page serious articles. i saw something a litttle bit similar in one the hearst books i read.i would like to learn a lot more about this myself.