| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | ONE SL LLC |
| Publisher | Ronald Weintraub |
| Editor | Seth Lipsky |
| Founded | April 16, 2002 |
| Ceased publication | September 30, 2008 |
| Headquarters | 105 Chambers Street 2nd Floor New York, NY 10007 USA |
| Official website | nysun.com |
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun (1833-1950), it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started in New York in several decades.
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The Sun was founded by a group of investors including publishing magnate Conrad Black, with the intent of providing an alternative to The New York Times, featuring front page news pertaining to local and state events, in contrast to the Times' emphasis on national and international news. It began business operations, prior to first publication, in October 2001.[1]
The newspaper's president and editor-in-chief was Seth Lipsky, former editor of The Forward. Its managing editor was Ira Stoll, who also served as a company vice-president. The paper's motto, displayed on its masthead and website, was "It Shines For All", also the name of a blog[2] that was part of the Sun's online presence. Stoll had been a longtime critic of the Times in his media watchdog blog smartertimes.com.[3] When smartertimes.com became defunct, its Web traffic was redirected to the Sun website.
Published from the Cary Building in lower Manhattan, it ceased print publication on September 30, 2008.[4] Its website resumed activity on April 28, 2009,[5] but only contains a small subset of the original content of the paper, mostly focusing on editorials rather than news content.
Editor-in-chief Lipsky remarked that the paper's prominent op-ed page would champion "limited government, individual liberty, constitutional fundamentals, equality under the law, economic growth ... standards in literature and culture, education."[6] Another goal, said Lipsky, was "to seize the local beat from which The New York Times was retreating as it sought to become a national newspaper."[7] Stoll characterized the Sun's political orientation as "right-of-center",[8] and an associate of Conrad Black predicted in 2002 that the paper would be neoconservative in its outlook.[3]
The Sun's roster of columnists included many prominent conservative and neoconservative pundits, including William F. Buckley, Jr., Michael Barone, Daniel Pipes, and Mark Steyn.
The Sun supported President George W. Bush and his decision to launch the Iraq War in 2003,[1] and courted controversy with an unsigned February 6, 2003, editorial arguing that protesters against the war should be prosecuted for treason.[9][10] The paper also urged strong action against the perceived threat of the Islamic Republic of Iran[1] and was also known for its forceful coverage of Jewish-related issues[11] and advocacy for Israel's right of self-defense[8][11][1] as evidenced in articles by pro-Israel reporter Aaron Klein.
The Sun established a readership niche for itself in New York.[12][1] Alex Jones of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy said, "It was a newspaper especially savored by people who don't like The New York Times, and there are plenty of those in New York."[1] The paper also scored more scoops than would be expected for its size and Stephen B. Shepard, dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, said that its effective coverage of local news earned it a place in the New York media world.[1] Accordingly, it was known as a good place for young, ambitious, scrappy reporters to start out in.[12]
According to Scott Sherman, writing in The Nation in April 2007, the Sun was "a broadsheet that injects conservative ideology into the country's most influential philanthropic, intellectual and media hub; a paper whose day-to-day coverage of New York City emphasizes lower taxes, school vouchers and free-market solutions to urban problems; a paper whose elegant culture pages hold their own against the Times in quality and sophistication; a paper that breaks news and crusades on a single issue; a paper that functions as a journalistic SWAT team against individuals and institutions seen as hostile to Israel and Jews; and a paper that unapologetically displays the scalps of its victims."[13]
In the same article, Mark Malloch Brown, Kofi Annan's chief of staff at the United Nations, described the Sun as "a pimple on the backside of American journalism." According to Sherman, Brown "accepts that the paper's obsession with the UN translates into influence... he admitted the Sun "does punch way above its circulation number, on occasion." He goes on to say, "Clearly amongst its minuscule circulation were a significant number of diplomats. And so it did at times act as some kind of rebel house paper inside the UN. It fed the gossip mills and what was said in the cafeterias."[13] Brown's insult was in the context of the Sun's reporting of the UN's central role in the Saddam Hussein Oil-for-Food scandal.
In May 2007, Adweek columnist Tom Messner called the Sun "the best paper in New York", noting that "The New York Sun is a conservative paper, but it gets the respect of the left. The Nation's April 30 issue contains an article on the Sun's rise by Scott Sherman that is as balanced an article as I have ever read in the magazine (not a gibe; you don't read The Nation for balance)."[14]
Catholic commentator Richard John Neuhaus, writing in First Things, described the Sun as a paper that had, “made itself nearly indispensable for New Yorkers”.[15]
The New York Sun was well known for its learned, serious, but still accessible arts coverage,[1] which included such critics as Adam Kirsch on literature, Jay Nordlinger on classical music, Joel Lobenthal on dance, Lance Esplund, Maureen Mullarkey, and David Cohen on art, Francis Morrone on art and architecture, Otto Penzler on mystery writing, Eric Ormsby on poetry, Carl Rollyson on biography, Amanda Gordon as society editor and Will Friedwald on jazz. The Sun also received critical praise for its sports section, whose writers included Steven Goldman, Thomas Hauser, Sean Lahman, Tim Marchman, and John Hollinger. Its crossword puzzle, edited by Peter Gordon, was called one of the two best in the United States.[16] It also published the first regular wine column in a New York newspaper, "Along the Wine Trail", written by G. Selmer Fougner.[17]
In its first edition, the paper carried the solution to the last crossword puzzle of the earlier Sun published in 1950.
The Sun was started up in 2002 in the face of the long-term decline of newspapers in the United States, the loss of advertising revenue to the Internet, and the rise of new media, and from the beginning faced a struggle for existence.[3][18][1] At the time of its creation, one media financial analyst said its chances of survival were "pretty grim",[18] while another media commentator characterized it as "the unlikeliest of propositions".[3]
It was underfunded from the start, with ten investors putting up a total of only about $15 million.[3] Beyond Conrad Black, who pulled out in 2003, these included hedge fund managers Michael Steinhardt and Bruce Kovner, private equity fund manager Thomas J. Tisch, and financier and think tank figure Roger Hertog.[19] The Sun's physical plant, in the Cary Building at Church Street and Chambers Street in lower Manhattan, was antiquated, with malfunctioning telephones and computers, a trouble-prone elevator and fire alarm system, and dubious bathroom plumbing.[19] Nevertheless, Lipsky had hopes of breaking even within the first year of operation.[20]
The Audit Bureau of Circulations confirmed that in its first six months of publication the Sun had an average circulation of just under 18,000.[21] By 2005 the paper reported an estimated circulation of 45,000.[22] In December 2005, the Sun withdrew from the Audit Bureau of Circulations to join the Certified Audit of Circulations, whose other New York clients are the free papers The Village Voice and amNewYork, and began an aggressive campaign of free distribution in select neighborhoods.[23][24]
While the Sun claimed "150,000 of New York City's Most Influential Readers Every Day", the Sun's own audit indicated that it was actually selling about 14,000 copies a day while giving away anywhere from 66,000 to 85,000 a day.[13][20][12] (The New York Daily News sold about 700,000 copies a day during that period.) It offered free subscriptions for a full year to residents in advertiser-desired zip codes;[13] indeed, this and other uses of controlled circulation made it more attractive to advertisers but further diminished its chances of ever becoming profitable.[20] Similarly, the Sun's online edition was accessible for free since August 2006.[25]
The Sun acquired the web address www.LatestPolitics.com in 2007.[26]
In a letter to readers published on the front page of the September 4, 2008, edition, Lipsky announced that the paper had suffered substantial losses and would "cease publication at the end of September unless we succeed in our efforts to find additional financial backing."[27][28] In particular, the paper's existing backers would not put forward more money unless new backers with capital were found.[12] Whatever chance that funding had of materializing was negated by the rapid onset of the late-2000s financial crisis, and the Sun ceased publication on September 30, 2008.[4][19][1] It had about 110 employees at that time,[19] and also made use of many freelance writers.[12] Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg commented that "The Sun shone brightly, though too briefly," and that its writers were "smart, thoughtful, provocative".[19]
Despite the closure of the newspaper, the New York Sun website renewed activity on April 28, 2009,[5][29] prompting some observers to consider the possible implications.[5][30][31] Michael Calderone of Politico quoted Lipsky as saying not to read too much into the initial items since "...a business plan for the site is still in formation," and "...these are just some very, very early bulbs of spring (or late winter)."[31]
Since that time, the website has continued to publish editorials[32] and op-ed commentaries[33] at irregular intervals and, more recently, frequent contributions from economist and noted television commentator Lawrence Kudlow. Some new arts content has also been produced, but there is virtually no straight news reporting and several of the website's top-level menu items still show the most recent content as being from September 2008 when the newspaper closed.