What is Page Three for?

If the editors of a tabloid newspaper believe that their readers deserve to see photos which millions of more privileged folk have already been able to view over their high speed broadband connection – well that is their right unless the photo is of the type proscribed by law, though there are lots of those on the web, too.

But what about the rights of those who do not want to gawp at the photo? By putting it on the front page the producers of the newspaper have ensured that people do not even have to buy a copy of the paper, & many will have to make a deliberate effort not to see it during their normal daily round, whether because they have to sell it, or because it is brazenly on sale in corner shop, station bookstall & supermarket, or being held up while being read by a fellow commuter.

It is now pretty much a commonplace that the only way for newspapers is down, as electronic or digital communications take over the world. So those involved in the industry feel that they have to compete on the same terms or lose even more business.

Book publishers are feeling the same kind of jitteriness, both of them convinced that they will go the way of the popular music album industry.

But if they get their business models right they may find that, as with radio & cinema, railways & buses, & even pubs, news of their demise is premature, but they do have to adapt their business model to the new circumstances, offer something that the internet cannot, not just ape its worst excesses, persuading their remaining customers that paper is not worth buying even as a wrapper for tomorrow’s fish & chips.

It’s not as if the press were being prevented from telling us about the existence of the photos. I think the tabloids are wrong if they really believe that a large proportion of their readers have no other way of seeing the evidence, if that is what they wish – more & more people have smart phones or even tablets, even if they do not have broadband connections & expensive laptops or PCs at home – though even the very elderly are getting on line at an ever more rapid rate – Skype being the surprisingly popular driver for this.