Relaunch Review – Punch

When seeing the new Punch for the first time one could be forgiven for thinking that you had been given the wrong magazine – a men’s weekly gossip title daring to take the same name as that 150-year old great British satirical institution. Yet this is the relaunch of the relaunched Punch and a more radical overhaul could not be imagined.

Front Cover -Punch The nearest comparison in appearance is a women’s weekly title like Enjoy!. Gone is the slick, glossy and upmarket approach and in comes more of a newspapery feel with garish colours, jumbled layout and an increase in the use of colour photos. The caricatures and sketches made famous by Punch are noticable for their absence.

Also gone are the weighty and in-depth articles on, for example, politics, foreign affairs and arts. Now there are pieces on drug lords, John Prescott’s mum and dad and the use of sex in advertising. There are also quite a few naked bodies. Most importantly, these articles are written in a namby-pamby reportage style, with no trace of satire or wit. In fact, think of the Daily Mail written with a male slant and you have a fair impression of how the new Punch reads.

While Liberty Publishing must be applauded for their brave move in so radically altering a magazine so soon after a relaunch, one must be doubtful about the future success of the title. If you didn’t like Punch before you could at least say it looked good, with its upmarket, minimalist style. Now the title doesn’t even seem to have this going for it and whilst attracting new readers is obviously paramount to the ailing title most of the old faithful will probably be put off.

The relaunched Punch had 68 pages, of which 19 were adverts. This gives an ad:ed ration of 19:81, with advertisers including Volvo, Legal & General and Harrods. There were also two pages of classifieds.

For a review of the first relaunch of Punch, subscribers should click here.