Sun editor rules out Page Three for free

By Gavin Haycock

LONDON (Reuters) - Rebekah Wade, the editor of The Sun newspaper, said the rise of giveaway titles and the demise of local vendors were hurting sales but ruled out making the paper free to combat falling circulation.

Official industry figures on Friday showed The Sun's circulation had fallen below 3 million for the first time since 1974. The Sun is published by News International, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Price cuts in 2007 failed to stem the decline and media analysts have speculated The Sun and the Daily Mirror, owned by the Trinity Mirror newspaper group, may eventually publish the papers or their Sunday counterparts free of charge.

"We would never give away The Sun for free," Wade said in evidence to a parliamentary committee investigating media ownership and news.

She also told the Lords Communications Committee that she would not stop her tabloid from running a daily picture of a topless woman on page three.

"I think page three is very popular with bishops," she said in response to a question from the Bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch, adding that if he wanted to meet one of the models, all he had to do was ask.

Wade said tabloids like the Sun, which rely more on newsstand sales and distribution than broadsheet titles with subscription and home-delivery models, were being crimped by an "alarming" decline in smaller independent retailers which removed outlets where people would pick up morning papers.

She said major supermarket groups like Asda, part of the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart Store, and Tesco were now the Sun's biggest retailing clients.