He has raised the idea of an administrative levy as a means of improving relations between publishers and small retailers, as well as helping sell more magazines.

His comments come as the magazine publishing industry awaits a revised ruling from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on distribution.

Alan Kemp, business development director at Haymarket and chairman of the PPA Parliamentary and Regulatory Affairs Committee, said: "Universal availability is as important for magazines as it is for newspapers. If publishers value this, they should help enable it to continue."

Last year, the OFT proposed opening up magazine distribution to competition, but backed down after it was argued that it put up to a thousand magazine titles and 12,000 newsagents at risk of closure.