By Alyson Fixter The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has scrapped its original draft opinion on the future of magazine distribution, in what could turn out to be a dramatic U-turn by the watchdog.

The OFT said on Monday that its new draft opinion on whether the supply should be opened up to competition would appear by the end of May — a full year after its first, controversial, draft.

The watchdog had originally said regional monopolies and their connected universal distribution system should end, but pressure groups warned that thousands of niche magazines and small newsagents could close as a result, allowing supermarkets too much say in which publications reached the shelves.