The New York Sun

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The New York Sun
NY Sun.jpg
Typical front page of The New York Sun
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 contemporary five-day daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 until 2008. When it debuted on 2002-04-16, it became "the first general interest broadsheet newspaper to be launched in New York in two generations." The newspaper's president and editor-in-chief was Seth Lipsky, former editor of The Forward; its managing editor (and a company vice president) was Ira Stoll. One 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."[1]

The paper's motto, displayed on its masthead and website, was "It Shines For All." This motto is also the name of a blog that was part of the Sun's online presence along with its official website.

An earlier newspaper in New York also named The Sun began publication in 1833 and merged with the New York World-Telegram in 1950. Other than their shared name, motto and masthead, there was no connection between the current Sun and its namesake (except that when the current paper launched, it carried the solution to the last crossword puzzle of the earlier paper). The earlier Sun was housed at the corners of Broadway and Chambers Streets (where a clock still bears the name) but the 2002-2008 paper published from The Cary Building at Church and Chambers.

In a letter to readers published on the front page of the 2008-09-04 edition, Lipsky announced that the paper would "cease publication at the end of September unless we succeed in our efforts to find additional financial backing."[2][3] The paper published its last edition on 2008-09-30[4], amidst a historic week of financial losses in the American economy.

Contents

[edit] Features

The New York Sun was well known for its learned and serious arts coverage, 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, has been called one of the two best in the United States [5].

[edit] Editorial stance

Stoll characterized the Sun's political orientation as "right-of-center,"[6] and an associate of Conrad Black predicted in 2002 that the paper would be "certainly neoconservative in its views."[7] Editor-in-chief Lipsky described the agenda of the paper's prominent op-ed page as "limited government, individual liberty, constitutional fundamentals, equality under the law, economic growth ... standards in literature and culture, education."[8] 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 was "known for its pugnacious coverage of Jewish-related issues";[9] in particular, it was "a strong proponent of Israel's right to defend itself."[6] It published articles by pro-Israel reporter Aaron Klein.

The paper courted controversy in 2003 with an unsigned February 6 editorial arguing that protestors against the Iraq war should be prosecuted for treason.[10][11]

According to Scott Sherman, writing in the "left-of-center" magazine The Nation (4/30/07), 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."[12]

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."[12] 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.

Adweek columnist Tom Messner called the Sun "the best paper in New York" (5/14/07), 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)."[13]

Catholic commentator Richard John Neuhaus, writing in First Things, described the Sun as a paper that had, “made itself nearly indispensable for New Yorkers” [14]

[edit] Relationship with The New York Times

The Sun was founded by a group of investors including Conrad Black with the intent of providing an alternative to The New York Times. It would put Manhattan and New York state news on its front page (in contrast to the Times' emphasis on national and international news over local issues). The Sun's managing editor Ira Stoll had been a longtime critic of this policy of the Times, as well as what he considered to be liberal bias in Times reporting, in his media watchdog blog smartertimes.com.[7] When smartertimes.com became defunct, its Web traffic was redirected to the Sun website.

[edit] Circulation

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.[15] By 2005 the paper reported an estimated circulation of 45,000.[16] 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.[17][18] As of 2007 the paper claimed a readership of 150,000.[19]

The Sun's online edition was accessible for free since August 2006.[20]

While the Sun claimed "150,000 of New York City's Most Influential Readers Every Day," according to April 2007 article in The Nation, its [the Sun's] own audit indicated that "the Sun is selling 13,211 hard copies a day and giving away more than 85,000. (By contrast, the Daily News sells about 700,000 copies a day.) In an attempt to lasso subscribers in certain New York ZIP codes, the Sun offered free subscriptions for a full year, an unusual way for a newspaper to build circulation."[12]

The Sun acquired the web address www.LatestPolitics.com in 2007.[21]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ All the News That's Fit to Subsidize, Seth Lipsky, Wall Street Journal, OCTOBER 22, 2009
  2. ^ Seth Lipsky (September 4, 2008), The Future of the Sun, New York Sun, http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-future-of-the-sun/85129/, retrieved 2008-09-04 
  3. ^ Perez-Pena, Richard (September 4, 2008), New York Sun May Close if Millions Aren't Found. The New York Times. Retrieved on September 4, 2008.
  4. ^ The Arc of the Sun, New York Sun, September 30, 2008, http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-arc-of-the-sun/86865/, retrieved 2008-09-30 
  5. ^ Gaffney, Matt (2006-07-12). "The Ultimate Crossword Smackdown. Who writes better puzzles, humans or computers?". Slate. http://www.slate.com/id/2145623/. Retrieved 2006-10-26. 
  6. ^ a b Meghan Clyne (July 19, 2004), Bright Light in a Big City, National Review Online, http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/clyne200407190902.asp, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  7. ^ a b Jeff Bercovici (November 30, 2001), A Sun rises in New York—But will we need a flashlight to find it?, Media Life, http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2001/nov01/nov26/5_fri/news3friday.html, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  8. ^ http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/04/25/nysun/index.html (requires registration to access)
  9. ^ Nathaniel Popper (November 21, 2003) ([dead link]Scholar search), Hollinger Woes Casting a Pall Over Future of Neocon Papers, Forward, http://www.forward.com/articles/hollinger-woes-casting-a-pall-over-future-of-neoco/, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  10. ^ Timothy Noah (February 11, 2003), Dissent Equals Treason, Slate, http://www.slate.com/id/2078455/, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  11. ^ Eugene Volokh (February 7, 2003), The Right to Oppose, National review Online, http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-evolokh020703.asp, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  12. ^ a b c Sherman, Scott (2007-4-30). "Sun-rise in New York". The Nation.
  13. ^ Tom Messner (May 14, 2007) ([dead link]Scholar search), Art & Commerce: Volume 1, Number 1, Ad Week, http://www.adweek.com/aw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003584574, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  14. ^ First Things: On the Square » Blog Archive » RJN: 2.24.06 Adam Kirsch is books…
  15. ^ Sun Reports Circulation, The New York Times, December 23, 2002, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04EFDB173CF930A15751C1A9649C8B63, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  16. ^ Darker cloud over the New York Sun, Media Life, May 12, 2005, http://www.medialifemagazine.com/News2005/may05/may09/4_thurs/news2thursday.html, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  17. ^ Sun Launching New Circulation Drive, Withdraws From ABC, The New York Sun, December 23, 2005, http://www.nysun.com/article/24943?page_no=2, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  18. ^ Groundhog Day Revelation: 12 Weeks of 'Sun', Gawker, February 2, 2006, http://www.gawker.com/news/metro/groundhog-day-revelation-12-weeks-of-sun-152436.php, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  19. ^ Scott Sherman (April 30, 2007), Sun-rise in New York, The Nation, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070430/sherman, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  20. ^ New York Sun Sees Light, Makes Web Free, mediabistro.com, August 8, 2006, http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/newspapers/new_york_sun_sees_light_makes_web_free_41612.asp, retrieved 2008-02-04 
  21. ^ http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/departments/online/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003584849 (requires registration to access)

[edit] External links