Editorial: No apology needed for Page 3 girls

Ask someone what they thought the best story of the year was and they'll tell you it was Nicky Hager's battles with the establishment, when in reality they loved the story about the giant spider, writes Andrew Bonallack. Photo / NZME.

Every so often papers of the world do an angsty analysis of What Readers Want, and take up surveys and focus groups, to guide an editorial change.

Sometimes they bow to what they perceive is pressure from an advocacy group, or simply a general dislike.

Somewhere in there must contain the reason for one of the greatest editorial revamps in recent times - the axing of the Page 3 girl from the Sun newspaper in England.

The decision has sparked a minor war of worlds between those who believe the "comfy shoe-wearing" brigade are winning when it comes to newspaper content, versus those who have long believed the Page 3 girl is a sexist anachronism.

The difficulty with trying to gauge what readers want is that, for starters, very few really tell the truth when it comes to reader surveys. Ask someone what they thought the best story of the year was and they'll tell you it was Nicky Hager's battles with the establishment, when in reality they loved the story about the giant spider.

The other difficulty is that for everyone who hates a story there's someone who loves it.

Placing our stories on Facebook, after they have been published, has been an interesting guide but it's certainly far from definitive.

In the end, an understanding of basic human nature, combined with knowledge and experience of your community, provides the groundwork. Human nature is good and bad, basic and primal, and hasn't changed much since we started peeking out of caves.

We are a species that wants to survive and we do this with knowing what is out there and how we prepare ourselves for it.

How are we doing in comparison to the other guy? Am I attractive enough and talented enough for someone to bond with me and bless me with children? Are our kids all right? Are we going to survive this year with clean water and full stomachs? These basic concepts translate to the modern property porn, stories about dangerous crims, young role models, investigating wrongdoing in those who have power, seeing kids on stage in a school play, fast cars ... and the breasts of Sharon from Braintree, Essex. Moving on from a dated anachronism is probably a good thing, if its time has come, but there's no need to apologise for it.

*Andrew Bonallack is the editor of the Wairarapa Times-Age.