Tuesday 24 March 2009

Quick hit: So. Farewell Then Page 3 Girl.

Thanks to reader Am for pointing this out via Facebook, from NZPA:
Tabloid paper NZ Truth has axed its topless Page 3 girl in favour of "more hard-hitting New Zealand stories", it said today.

Editor-in-chief Dermott Malley said it was almost 25 years to the day that the Page 3 girl made her debut, but the paper was planning to focus more on investigative news.

The aim was to take NZ Truth back to its roots and into people's living rooms, he said.

"Sex will always sell in the media but NZ Truth readers want more – more sports, more entertainment and more hard news, investigative stories that we tell without fear or favour."

The topless model has not disappeared altogether. She is to become a poster in the centre of the paper's liftout magazine.

"The huge poster will bring readers the most alluring and exotic models from around the world," Malley said.
That's the whole thing, but if you don't believe me you can click through to the Stuff page.

And with apologies to David Slack for the title-poaching. Although he could consider this a challenge for another Long Goodbye if he so chooses?

4 comments:

Paul said...

Sorry for being the swot who corrects you, but the true origin of your title is in the poetry of E J Thribb, of Private Eye.

I thought men bought The Truth for the, ahem, classified advertising, if you get my drift.

Anna said...

This is probably just a response to the changing market for porn/erotic material/nudie stuff. There's now so much readily accessible stuff on the net that it's no longer a drawcard for a printed publication.

Asher said...

The Truth started out its life as a syndicalist newspaper - ie: it was on the radical left. Obviously those days are long, long gone now though. 'Tis a pity.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the porn isn't going away, just moving from page 3 to a centre page pull out poster. In other words, it's getting bigger.

So this is how the story translates to me: "HEY! LOOK AT US! WE'RE BEING PROGRESSIVE! NO MORE TITTY GIRLS! YAY US! CELEBRATE US!... ... (tiny voice) but yeah you can still find teh boobies in the centrefold..."