After featuring bare-breasted women on its cover for 28 years, Germany's largest-selling newspaper, the tabloid Bild, is publishing its last front-page topless model today in honor of International Women's Day.

Bild says the move is "perhaps a small step from women's point of view -- but it's a big step for Bild and all men in Germany."

The newspaper says its male staff made the decision Thursday, when it gave all female employees the day off to mark women's day.

It hinted that the Bild Girl may not be totally gone, saying it "wants to be sexy in future, too - but in a more modern way, and better-wrapped, inside the paper."

Though the cover has featured about 5,000 topless models on the front page since 1984, the editors have occasionally taken a pass, such as the day after German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Pope Benedict XVI.

The decision was quickly welcomed by one female official, Bavarian state Justice Minister Beate Merk, who tweeted, "Good decision."

One regular columnist wasn't so thrilled, the Associated Press reports.

"Bild doesn't want to print any more girls on Page 1 because it doesn't correspond with the woman of today," Franz Josef Wagner wrote in his second-page column Friday. "I think the editor-in-chief of Bild is crazy. How can he banish the dream girl?"