N.Y. Sun closes down

Shuttering the newspaper was “a logical decision following a hardheaded assessment of our chances of meeting our goal of profitable publication in the near future,” Seth Lipsky, The Sun's editor and president, told reporters and editors on Monday, The New York Times reported. September “has been one of the worst in a century in which to be trying to raise capital, and in the end we were out not only of money but time.”

On Monday the Dow Jones Industrial average plummeted to the lowest point loss in one day in its history.

Lipsky launched The Sun six years ago when he raised US$15.9 million from different backers, including Michael H. Steinhardt, former chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council; Thomas J. Tisch, who oversees the Four Partners investment fund and is also Brown University's chancellor; Bruce Kovner, a hedge fund manager; and Roger Hertog, an investment banker and chairman emeritus of the Manhattan Institute, according to The New York Times.

Former newspaper baron Conrad Black was also one of the newspaper's original backers, but Hollinger International, his former company, sold its share of The Sun when Black resigned. Black was convicted in July 2008 in federal court on charges of fraud and obstruction, which were not related to The Sun.

“In its six-and-a-half year run, the New York Sun achieved the status any newspaper seeks: It was read in precincts high and low, and it was read every day,” the Wall Street Journal stated on Tuesday. “While it shared our editorial principles, the Sun made us work harder to avoid getting scooped, with especially distinguished coverage of the U.N. and its endless shenanigans. For sheer liveliness it was hard to beat. Many New Yorkers told us they found its arts coverage a refuge of clarity and intellectual depth. The Sun won a devoted following even among those who disagreed with its politics.”