NEW YORK (AFP) — The New York Sun, a newspaper launched six years ago billing itself as an alternative to The New York Times, published its last edition on Tuesday.
Sun Editor Seth Lipsky, in published remarks to the newspaper's staff, said efforts to secure financing which would have allowed the paper to continue had failed.
He said the decision to shut down followed a "hard-headed assessment of our chances of meeting our goal of profitable publication in the near future."
"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," he said in a reference to the current financial crisis.
Lipsky said the Sun's print advertising revenue had bucked the industry trend and grown over the past three years but it was not enough to offset losses he described as "substantial."
The Sun published its first issue in April 2002 as an avowedly conservative alternative to The New York Times. It claimed a total readership of 150,000 but Lipsky told the Times that paid circulation was just 14,000.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement lamenting the demise of the paper. "In a City saturated with news coverage and commentary, The Sun shone brightly, though too briefly," he said.
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