( CNN ) -- The UK 's highest selling newspaper may be embarking on a giant cover up -- much to the delight of its critics -- and putting an end to a tradition opponents see as sexist and outdated . The Sun 's topless model on Page 3 has been a tradition since the 1970s . A photo of a bare-breasted young woman along with a corny caption was the newspaper 's way of giving its largely male readers a break from the often depressing news of the day . Page 3 quickly became part of The Sun 's brand , making the transition from black and white photos to color , then onto the paper 's website . Page 3 models often support The Sun 's campaigning journalism and are taken on tours to meet serving military . Nudity in newspapers is not the exclusive domain of The Sun . The press and advertising campaigns will often use flesh to draw in the eyeballs in parts of Europe . But now The Sun 's owner Rupert Murdoch -- in one tweet -- has raised the specter of a world without Page 3 . Murdoch said : `` @ Kazipooh page three so last century ! You maybe right , do n't know but considering . Perhaps halfway house with glamorous fashionistas . '' Murdoch later tempered this , saying it was the editor 's call . But it was music to the ears of campaigners at `` No More Page Three . '' The campaign was started by Lucy Holmes when she realized the day after Jessica Ennis won Olympic gold in the heptathlon for Great Britain last summer `` the largest female image in The Sun was of a young woman showing her breasts . '' On April 1 , it had 88,000 signatures supporting an end to Page 3 . The Sun sells 2.28 million copies a day and has many more readers as each copy sold is read by friends or family . A spokesperson for News International said : `` In a YouGov survey commissioned last October almost two thirds of Sun readers voted to keep the Page 3 format and notably it has more than seven million readers daily of which 45 per cent are female . It remains the UK 's biggest selling newspaper which means its formula -- brilliant journalism , entertainment , outstanding sports writing -- and Page 3 , is working . '' The YouGov survey also found readers of most of the other national papers were more likely to favor an end to the Sun 's Page 3 . Meanwhile , the UK media landscape is changing after the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking . Sun staffers have been arrested , its sister paper The News of the World was closed by Murdoch and codes of conduct are being imposed on the media . The emphasis is on ethics , and that might not sit well on Page 3 . One anti-Page 3 campaigner , Laura Ashton , told CNN : `` It 's exploitative , it 's from the 1970s , and the girls back then were very young they were putting in the newspaper . They 're not much older now . But it really feels very outdated , that kind of sexism . '' Others have tried before . Clare Short was a leading Labour Party MP when in 1986 she tried unsuccessfully to push through legislation that would have outlawed topless models in newspapers . In 2007 , Short tried again , only for The Sun to launch a `` Hands Off Our Page 3 '' campaign with models being driven by bus to pose outside to the former MP 's home . In the UK , topless and nude model magazines are largely restricted to the top shelves of stores where children ca n't reach them . Only a couple of newspapers containing nudity are put on bottom shelf . Elsewhere in Europe , different standards apply in different markets with topless models used on advertising hoardings for everything from soap to sweaters . Some of the UK 's Page 3 models have used their exposure as launchpad for other careers . Sam Fox , perhaps the best-known of them , had a string of pop hits . And Linda Lusardi , another pin-up of the 1980s , became an actress in long-running UK shows like `` The Bill '' and `` Emmerdale . '' But even Lusardi , voted by Sun readers in 2005 as the best Page 3 girl ever , said : `` It 's time for it to go . I really think things have moved on so far with the internet and with everything else that I do n't feel that we really need that in our national newspapers anymore . ''
Campaigners hope UK 's biggest newspaper will stop publishing topless model photos . Rupert Murdoch , owner of The Sun , tweeted the Page 3 girl might be outdated . Even one former model now says it is time for Page 3 to end . Score: 7