'It's a good way of selling newspapers': The Sun opts to keep Page 3 but ditches News In Briefs

New editor David Dinsmore vowed to keep printing pictures of topless women despite pressure from campaigners

The Sun

The Sun is keeping Page 3 as it is a “good way of selling newspapers”, the tabloid’s new editor has announced.

David Dinsmore, who has replaced Dominic Mohan at the head of Britain’s top-selling newspaper, vowed to keep printing pictures of topless women despite pressure from campaigners and MPs.

However, he has scrapped the “News In Briefs” section of Page 3, in which the glamour models would ostensibly apprise readers of their thoughts on the day’s biggest news story.

During an appearance on the radio station LBC 97.3, he was asked whether Page 3 was safe under his leadership. He replied: “It is, it is, yes I can tell you that.”

Dinsmore discussed a story printed in today’s Times about a new British Museum exhibition about sex and humour in Japanese art, saying: “It’s given the editor of the Times the opportunity to put a naked Japanese lady on page 3, which as we know is a good way of selling newspapers.”

He claimed that the Times’ content was “far more explicit and raunchy” than The Sun’s own Page 3 efforts, highlighting the caption for one artwork which showed a “woman enjoying the attention of a pair of octopuses”.

He went on to explain on BBC Radio 5 Live that a majority of Sun readers want to keep Page 3. Dinsmore claimed that those against it, presumably including the 106,000 people who have signed an online petition to drop the topless shots, “have never read The Sun and would never read The Sun.”

There was a small victory for campaigners, however, as News in Briefs was dropped.

In passages written by The Sun’s own writers, the young models would give astute assessments of the day’s news and quoting famous authors and philosophers. They appeared to cynically suggest that beautiful women couldn’t possibly have any brains.

The last News in Briefs appeared on Monday, and according to PoliticsHome it won’t be resurrected.

It said: “Kelly has high hopes for Andy Murray at Wimbledon after his heartache last year. She said: ‘As Muhammad Ali observed, ‘Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win’.”