Former Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson has called on regional and local newspapers to stop publishing sex ads.
He writes in a blog posting:
Why, oh why, is the most family-orientated media in Britain sullying itself by accepting classified adverts for massage parlours that it at least suspects are in certain cases informal brothels?
I call for the newspaper industry itself to completely ban all blatant sex ads. Even if the majority describe legal services, they simply do not suit what should be the style of regional and local papers.
Taste issues aside, deep down we also know that such adverts can support trades that we would not like to put our names to.
At least one major regional publisher has already taken that step. Newsquest did so, and without great fanfare, in July 2008.
