Taking A Cue From Abroad p.

By: Tony Case

The Trentonian's British-style publication of photos of bikini-clad models is touted by the tabloid's publisher

THERE IS ONE newspaper that the Gloria Steinem-Susan Faludi-Naomi Wolf crowd won't be reading.
Taking a cue from some of its British and Canadian counterparts, the Trentonian, a tabloid in Trenton, N.J., regularly has been publishing photographs of bikini-clad models.
The gimmick isn't original. The renegade London Sun and Toronto Sun have plastered photos of bare-chested women on their pages for years, and at one time, the New York Daily News featured pinups. When Rupert Murdoch took over the New York Post for the first time in the late 1970s, sunbathing girls at local beaches graced an upfront page on hot summer days.
But it is unusual for a U.S. paper to use daily cheesecake to peddle papers.
The 76,110-circulation Trentonian has featured "Page 6 Girls" every day for the past couple of years. Doing so apparently has paid off, at least in terms of sales.
Monday used to be the weakest day of the week for single-copy circulation, Trentonian publisher H.L. "Sandy" Schwartz III said. But since the paper began putting models on foldout, full-color posters every Monday, it has become the strongest day.
Schwartz boasted that "the girls," as he referred to the models in a letter to E&P touting the feature, are "the greatest single circulation builder I have ever seen in 14 years as a publisher at four newspapers from coast to coast."
The aforementioned feminist authors and their disciples undoubtedly would consider the paper's tactic exploitive and sexist ? "Where are the half-naked men?" they will ask.
The "Page 6 Girls" certainly won't earn the Trentonian any accolades from the National Organization for Women, but Schwartz maintains that the feature is popular with women.
At the end of each month, the tabloid invites readers to pick their favorite models. Those who vote are eligible to win $500 in a drawing, and Schwartz said more than half of the reader-contest winners have been "white, middle-class, middle-aged" females.
The models who are selected as the monthly winners and runners-up also win prizes of $1,000 and $500, respectively.
And just in time for the holidays, the Trentonian is offering a calendar featuring its "14 Page 6 Girl of the Year finalists." Price tag: $10 plus $2 for shipping and handling.
Apparently, women who work at the Trentonian aren't such fans of the "Page 6 Girls."
When an employee, who didn't want to be identified, was asked what she and her colleagues thought of the paper running photos of scantily dressed models, she replied, "If you took a poll, you'd get the same reaction from all the women. You can imagine what it would be; it's what you'd think."
"Negative?"
"Yeah," she responded matter-of-factly.
The staffer said she and her co-workers find some of the photos more offensive than others.
Occasionally, the "Page 6 Girls" can be seen in relatively tasteful poses, donning T-shirts and one-piece bathing suits. But more often than not, they appear in skimpy tops, striking poses typical of Sports Illustrated magazine's swimsuit issue. Their backs are arched and their heads are thrown back. Some smile seductively while others offer sultry, pouty-lipped expressions.