The Press: New Home for Liberty

Liberty was taken out of the hands of the Macfadden Publications last week by its printer and its papermaker, who decided to give the 18-year-old weekly another chance under new direction. As Liberty’s new publisher, Printer John Cuneo installed one of his own men: Paul Hunter, onetime Hearst man, now head of Cuneo-controlled Screenland Magazines.

Once in 1937, Liberty reached a circulation peak of 2,700,000—second in the weekly field. It now claims only 1,400,000 —down over half a million from last year and its guarantee has been reduced all the way to 1,100,000. Ever since it upped its price from a nickel to a dime in April, following the Satevepost’s lead, Liberty’s sales have been sharply off—its subscriptions have not had time to be affected materially, but newsstand sales have dropped almost one-third and boy sales over 60%. Advertising revenue, always slim, dropped 50% in a year to a piddling $155,000 (in July).

Last week’s change in ownership was more nominal than real, for Printer Cuneo and Kimberly-Clark (paper) have been heavily interested financially in Macfadden Publications ever since Bernarr Macfadden retired from the management last year. Macfadden will keep right on handling Liberty’s newsstand and boy-sale circulation on a contract basis, and the position of the rest of the Macfadden group will be stronger with Liberty gone.