The New York Sun published its last issue Tuesday, citing unsustainable finances. The six-year-old conservative newspaper, backed by, among others, Chancellor Thomas Tisch '76, was reported to be losing $1 million each month and could not afford to stay in publication.
Seth Lipsky, president and editor of the Sun, announced Sept. 4 that the paper would have to fold unless it found new investors. The timing could not have been worse: The Sun was looking for backers as the economy fell into a recession.
Lipsky announced that the newspaper was shutting down the same day the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 778 points.
"Among other problems that we faced was the fact that this month, not to mention this week, 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," Lipsky said in a speech to the Sun's staff.
In 2004, Tisch headed a team of backers who invested $30 million in the paper, according to an Sept. 4 article in the Press Gazette, a journalism newspaper based in London.
"They invested in the ideal of the scoop, the notion that news is the spirit of democracy, and in the principles for which we have stood in our editorial pages - limited and honest government, equality under our Constitution and the law, free markets, sound money, and a strong foreign policy in support of freedom and democracy," Lipsky said in his remarks.
