New York Sun to close

The New York Sun is to close with the last edition to be published Tuesday.

The conservative leaning broadsheet launched with the backing on the now disgraced Conrad Black among others in 2002 and has struggled to find profit despite increasing revenue in recent years.

In remarks made to staff published on the Sun’s site, Editor Seth Lipsky explained that the economic crisis had contributed to the papers downfall by making it harder to raise new capital to keep the paper going:

We have spoken with every individual who seemed to be a prospective partner, and everywhere we were received with courtesy and respect. I tend to be an optimist and held out hope for a favorable outcome as late as mid-afternoon today. But 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.

Although not a classic case of an old media company going to the wall, the economics around the Sun’s collapse will soon hold true with thousands of papers around the United States and the world. If papers are losing money through declining advertising, there will be no Plan B back up finance to help them when the money eventually runs out altogether.