Ira Stoll

This past weekend, The New York Times' 'City' section featured a story by Caroline H. Dworin headlined Suddenly, Souvenirs, about promotional paperweights and newspaper boxes for the late New York Sun, which remain like memento mori throughout the city after the paper folded in September.

Writes Ms. Dworin:

Perhaps those who will notice the weights the longest and watch mournfully as they disappear are the paper’s former staff members. A few weeks ago, while walking in the Flatiron district, Jacob Gershman, The Sun’s Albany reporter, found himself standing on line at a newsstand, a worn weight in his hand.

'You see these around, and you want to pick something up before it all goes away,' he said.

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In the newspaper's own obituary, a history of the newspaper's six and a half years as told by its editors and more. The material is surprisingly frank, in a way normally reserved for the newspaper's editorials, about the politics of its mission, but it's all pretty fascinating and worth reading.

Contribute to some great journalists' severance packages by buying a copy at the newsstand, but if you can't make it there yet you can get it all here.

Michael Bloomberg just sent out a statement on the Sun:

In a City saturated with news coverage and commentary, The Sun shone brightly, though too briefly. Whether you agreed or disagreed with the Sun’s writers, they were smart, thoughtful, provocative – and sometimes even courageous. What other paper in America urged Dick Cheney to run for President? The Sun launched the careers of many talented and dedicated journalists, whose stories often raised the bar for their competitors. I am sorry to see the Sun halt its presses and send my best wishes to all labored so hard to make it a success, especially Seth Lipsky and Ira Stoll.

The editors of The New York Sun have started posting stories on their Web site during the day instead of waiting to put them in the next morning’s paper.

A memo sent to staff yesterday by city editor David Lombino said reporters should expect to file early when they’re working on certain kinds of stories. Mr. Lombino said in the memo that news editors will work with new online editor Mike McPhate to choose what will be posted early during their morning meeting.

Previously, wire copy was the only fresh content one could expect to see on the Sun Web site after the day’s stories were uploaded in the early morning hours. In an interview earlier today, managing editor Ira Stoll said he hopes that readers will get in the habit of visiting the site more often when they realize that new local stories, filed by the Sun’s own beat reporters, are being posted there on a regular basis.

Not all stories qualify for this treatment.

“We’re trying to do it more often on non-exclusive stories,” Mr. Stoll said, “like where there’s a press conference with the mayor or the governor at 10 or 11 in the morning and all the other reporters are there. Or if there was a crime that happened the night before and the police have put out a release about it.”

In an interview, Mr. Lombino said that if he’s dealing with “the kind of story that somebody [from another newspaper] can follow up on for the next day’s paper, we’ll probably want to sit on it until we’re confident they’re at home or in bed. It depends on what kind of scoop we’re talking about.”

Mr. Stoll said that “people may write shorter and quicker, and then for the print edition find a different angle or have more thorough reporting.”

Mr. Lombino said he had looked to The New York Times’ “City Room” blog as a reference point; the Times blog is updated frequently with up-to-the-minute metro news.

Mr. Stoll said he had never heard of City Room.

Mr. Lombino’s memo to staff is after the jump.  read more »

Henry Kissinger loves the bloggers. Or at least one blogger, Karol Sheinin. She's got the lowdown on last night's dinner in celebration of Commentary Magazine.

In addition to collecting some fun photos, Karol picked up on a bit of news: The New York Sun's Ira Stoll said he'll be writing again for The Sun's political blog at some point.

More on Karol's night out is here.

Perfection eludes us,” said Col Allan, editor in chief of the New York Post.  read more »

Today's New York Sun prints a vicious attack on Tony Judt as a professor who has "become hostile to the Jewish state" in an article about the Polish consulate in N.Y. abruptly cancelling a Judt speech last night under pressure from the Anti-Defamation League. Penned by Ira Stoll (who I believe is credited with the prescient statement in 2003 that demonstrators opposed to the upcoming war in Iraq should be investigated for treason).

Interesting that anyone who is critical of Israel's regrettable policies toward its neighbors, and its overreliance on the U.S. in maintaining that posture, is said to be "hostile to the Jewish state."

Also interesting that The Sun advertises itself—I bought a copy this morning— "100,000 Copies a day to New York City's Most Influential Readers." A similar boast to the claim by Sun owner Roger Hertog's Manhattan Institute (which like the Sun is dedicated in some large part to insulating Israel from criticism), that it is turning "Intellect Into Influence." If anyone else talked about influence this much, they'd be accused of rewriting the protocols of the elders of Zion. Once again supporting Walt and Mearsheimer's point: the lobby brags about its power till you call them on it, and then it howls antisemitism.

So my old employer, The New York Sun, has stolen away Politicker contributor and former New York Press reporter Azi Paybarah.

My only consolation is that I've obtained a copy of the memo from Sun managing editor Ira Stoll:

From: Ira Stoll

Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 2:30 PM

Subject: New employee

I'm pleased to announce that Azi Paybarah will join the Sun starting Wednesday morning as a staff blogger and news reporter focusing on New York city and state politics. You may be familiar with his contributions to Ben Smith's Politicker blog at the New York Observer Web site. He is one of the editorial team who left the New York Press when Harry Siegel resigned; at the time Azi was the Press's City Hall bureau man. Please join me in welcoming him to the Sun.

Aargh. Um, I mean, "Good luck, Azi."

When Will The Sun Set? New Paper Mulls Late Nights  read more »

Well, they're almost here. On Tuesday Jan.  read more »

Conrad Black, the owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post , finally has at least a pie  read more »