Is The Daily Telegraph trying to creep page 3 girls into its pages?

So far this year, Crikey has counted nine days where the Tele has used a picture of a woman in a bikini, underwear or otherwise very scantily clad as the main illustration on page 3 of the paper.

That’s nearly one every week.

Take this example, from Wednesday’s paper. For a story about an Australian model caught partying with Prince William, the Tele used this racy modelling shot:

 

And back in February, there was this expose on model Jess Gomes, who we are glad to hear is “happy in her skin”:

In January, this pic of Sydney publicist Roxy Jacenko illustrated a yarn about her trip to Hawaii:

The Tele was gloating about hitting a million readers when readership figures were released Thursday, and its weekday print editions did increase by 2.1% compared to the same period last year.

Daily Telegraph editor Chris Dore told Crikey in an email:

“What appears on page three is determined by news value, story mix and reader interest, certainly not on what people are wearing,” he said, adding that the only naked page 3 pic he could remember publishing was this one:

On further clarification, Dore said scantily clad women were featured in about 13% of papers published this year, and, “it is summer”.

The page 3 girl was a notorious inclusion in Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun newspaper in the UK from 1970 until the beginning of 2015. The section was introduced by editor Larry Lamb when redesigning the newspaper after Murdoch bought it. 

The pictures of topless, and sometimes nude, women and the outrage they called were at least partially credited for the Red Top’s success. 

In Australia, it’s not a tradition we’ve seen broadly catch on, but the Top End’s Sunday Territorian featured page 3 girls until only a couple of years ago, with a local or visiting “model” posing in her bikini alongside a short article each week.

This “Sunday Stunners” often featured in online galleries, and in 2012 made up a 56-page lift out sponsored by a Top End tool supplier.

The stunners were discontinued towards the end of 2013.