A Newspaper Teeters On The Edge Of Collapse

The New York Sun, a seven year old newspaper, is on the cusp of shutting down its operations. According to the New York Post, the company has never posted a profit in its recent history and it is losing twelve million dollars annually. Unsurprisingly, the company can’t scrape together enough capital from investors to save itself.

As a result, the reporters are now working day-to-day, expecting the paper to close down at any moment. Portfolio called the paper’s managing editor, and part-owner, Ira Stoll to find out if the company would be closed by day’s end. Stoll sounded less than convincing when he said, “Ah…I think there will be,” an issue printed tomorrow, later adding, “I’m one of the owners. The paper may be closing, but it may not be.”

This news saddens those who hate watching newspapers die off, though it comes as no surprise. The paper tried to revive the New York Sun brand right when the internet became ubiquitous, leading to a change in people’s consumption patterns. Had the Sun launched as a Slate or Salon type of publication, its fate might have been different.

Many news companies, often in the form of blogs, are launching at a regular clip nowadays. These operations are lower cost, higher velocity, more reliant on analysis and aggregation, but no less informative or useful. Granted, launching into the crowded blog world is akin to the Sun’s launch into the crowded New York newspaper market, but somehow it makes more sense.

On average I read more than 20 news sites every day. I’ve never seen a single person carrying 20 different newspapers with them. When reaching for a newspaper in the morning, too many customers grabbed the Post, the Daily News, The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal instead of the Sun.

The New York Sun’s demise should be a wake up call–not that they need it–to other newspapers, as well as other media companies, that in this economy, it is time to tighten up and focus on the bottom line. As Howard Lindzon tweeted over the weekend, “This is THE BEST time to start a business as your dumb ideas will be questioned and you will be focused on survival – REVENUE.”

Jay Yarow