Posted on 11/28/2001 4:25:06 AM PST by aculeus
Conrad Black, the owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, finally has at least a piece of a New York newspaper.
A group of investors including Mr. Black intends to spend up to $15 million to launch a new daily newspaper expected to appear sometime early next year, a source familiar with the venture told Off the Record. The paper, likely to be called The New York Sun, will be edited by former Forward editor in chief Seth Lipsky along with his protégé, Ira Stoll, the editor of Smartertimes.com, a Web site known for its critiques of The New York Times.
For more than a year, Mr. Stoll has been promising that Smartertimes.com would one day lead to the creation of "a new newspaper that would offer an alternative to the dominant daily." The Sun, which will appear five days a week, is expected to cover city news but also embody the same neoconservative values that shaped Mr. Stoll’s attacks on The Times as well as The Forward under Mr. Lipsky, sources said.
Neither Mr. Lipsky nor Mr. Stoll would comment for this story. But an outline of the paper emerged from others involved in its genesis, including people who have been approached about working for the publication. There have been other clues: Starting in October, classified ads began running on Smartertimes.com in search of a business executive to run a new newspaper’s advertising and circulation effort ("Compensation in the low six-figures") as well as editorial staff ("Willing to work long hours in an entrepreneurial, start-up environment"). In early November, Mr. Lipsky registered several Internet addresses, including newyorksun.com and nysun.com. And on Nov. 7, he applied for a trademark of the title The New York Sun.
Backing the new paper, sources said, is a group of nine or 10 investors that includes Mr. Black—chairman and chief executive of Hollinger International Inc.—as well as Michael Steinhardt, a former hedge-fund manager and prominent Democratic Party donor, who up until mid-2000 owned half of The Forward but is still the paper’s vice chairman. Since Mr. Lipsky was pushed out as editor in chief at The Forward, he and Mr. Steinhardt have maintained close contact, sources said. In the ideological battle between Mr. Lipsky and The Forward’s board of directors—Mr. Lipsky’s neoconservative leanings did not sit well with the more liberal board—Mr. Steinhardt offered to buy the other half of the Jewish weekly in order to keep Mr. Lipsky at the helm. Rebuffed by the board, Mr. Lipsky ultimately left the paper in April 2000, and Mr. Stoll, who had been managing editor, followed later that summer.
Reached at his home, Mr. Steinhardt confirmed that he had invested in the daily-to-be but declined to discuss other participants.
"Seth is a terrific editor with great skills and great history," Mr. Steinhardt said, "and some of the investors were drawn to him and his sidekick, Ira Stoll."
Mr. Steinhardt said that when he last heard, the paper was to launch in January. He also took issue with the "conservative" label.
"I don’t know if I’d call it ‘conservative,’" Mr. Steinhardt said when asked of the paper’s political bent. "I myself am not a conservative, but some of the other investors are."
As for Mr. Black, neither he nor Hollinger officials returned repeated requests for comment. Mr. Black has made previous attempts to acquire a New York publication, including attempts to buy the Daily News as well as The Observer.
In launching The Sun, Mr. Lipsky and Mr. Stoll will return an old name to New York newsstands. The New York Sun was the first successful penny-press daily after its birth in 1833, appealing to a working-class readership with lurid crime reporting and pro-union, pro-immigrant views. Today, its most famous moment is the "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter, which ran in 1897. The Sun finally folded in 1950.
New York Press editor in chief and C.E.O. Russ Smith, who has pined for a conservative alternative to The Times in his weekly Mugger column, relished the debut of The Sun. "I think it’s a great idea, and I’d like to write for it," Mr. Smith said. But while he said he thought there was a large audience for a Times alternative, Mr. Smith added that it’s a tough time to launch a newspaper: "One would have to be skeptical of a start-up daily newspaper’s success."
Maybe I will invest some of my vast fortune in India... ;)
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