Liberty signs bulk deal to boost Punch

Liberty Publishing has signed a bulk distribution deal with two hotel chains and an airline to boost the circulation of Punch.

Punch will now be distributed free to guests of Queen’s Moat Hotels and hotels in the Stakis group, as well as to travellers on long-haul flights with Cathay Pacific.

But Liberty denies reports from sources close to the company that the distribution deal will account for 15,000 copies a week. The magazine had been selling as few as 30,000 copies a week before Christmas – 10,000 of them subscription copies (MW January 10).

Any bulk sales figure will be listed separately in the magazine’s first Audit Bureau of Circulations certificate due out in August.

Meanwhile, Liberty has confirmed former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil is working one day a week for the publisher, in addition to his role at Scotsman Publications.

Neil is working on Liberty proprietor Mohammed Al Fayed’s charity the People’s Trust, as well as on other “special projects”.