Last spring, I wrote a column about The New York Sun called "Potemkin Paper?" For those of you outside the New York City area (or for the many of you in it that still likely don't read the paper), it's something like what you'd expect if Marty Peretz ran a daily broadsheet. My Nation colleague Scott Sherman aptly described it as "a journalistic SWAT team against individuals and institutions seen as hostile to Israel." It's targeted the Ford Foundation, which it accused of aiding Palestinian terrorism; Columbia University, accused of creating an atmosphere unfriendly to Jews; Kofi Annan's office at the U.N., accused of rampant corruption; and Harvard University's Kennedy School, publisher of the famous Walt-Mearsheimer paper, likened to a David Duke neo-Nazi screed.
It also specializes in some rather strange editorial ideas. For instance its editorial board advocated Dick Cheney for president in 2008, and just recently predicted Democrats would dump Obama a week before the convention for Hillary. Just about the only person I could find who took any of these seriously was Rick Klein of ABC's The Note, a man with the softest of spots for crazy neocons ...
Even stranger, as I noted back in May of last year, were the Sun's business practices:
I did no sleuthing myself, but not only is this a business rampant with fraud, it's also characterized by more shady-but-legal tricks of the trade than a border-based bordello. According to William Breen, for instance, who says he worked for a New York City wholesaler (and wrote a 2004 letter to Jim Romenesko's blog, MediaNews), city news dealers paid just a penny per copy. That means it makes no economic sense to return the leftovers. The result, Breen claimed, was "their circ figures look great. Virtually every copy they print is 'sold.' "
(An additional peek into the lunacy that must take place inside that newsroom is here. That's a guidebook for how to get virtually zero productivity -- and a lot of bitter feelings -- out of your interns).
Anyway, who said the free market doesn't work? Here's today's news from the already-established (although notably unreliable) New York paper, the Post:
The sun appears to be setting on The New York Sun some 6½ years after it began.
Investors are said to have given founder and Editor Seth Lipsky until the end of the month to find new angel investors - or else the plug will be pulled.
The right leaning, pro-Israel broadsheet is believed to be losing money at the rate of $1 million a month for total losses surpassing $70 million.
The Sun was never about profits, just its SWAT tactics. And if my building was any guide, most people did not even bother to pick up their free copies from the security desk. But there is only so much love among crazy neocons when it comes to a paper that is primarily trash and it looks like the bill has finally come due. Even so, as I said, I'm a bit regretful. The paper's art section was stellar, particularly in its coverage of the local jazz and cabaret scene. Getting to read Gary Giddens and Will Friedwald, the smart book reviews of Adam Kirch and the absolutely terrific obit section was a pleasure that almost justified the fish paper they came wrapped in.