Seth Lipsky
{{Short description|American journalist (born 1946)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}
Seth Lipsky (born 1946) is the founder and editor of the New York Sun, an independent conservative daily in New York City that ceased its print edition on September 30, 2008. Lipsky counts Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, Ariel Sharon, and Milton Friedman among his intellectual and ideological heroes.[http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/slipsky/?id=95000667 The Wall Street Journal Online - Dispatch] He has a long history of working in the newspaper business, including "a nearly 20-year-long career" at the Wall Street Journal{{cite journal
|journal=The Observer
|url=https://observer.com/2013/10/seth-lipsky-looks-forward
|title=Seth Lipsky Looks Forward: New bio takes on Abraham Cahan, 'the first neoconservative'|date=October 16, 2013
}} that included Asia and Belgium.
Lipsky also founded and was editor{{cite book
|title=God, Jews and the Media: Religion and Israel's Media
|quote=The Forward .. Yiddish Forverts, Seth Lipsky, its founding editor, was an unlikely candidate for the venture.
|author=Yoel Cohen |isbn=978-0-415-47503-7 |year=2012|publisher=Routledge
}} of The Forward, an English-language successor to a Yiddish-language longtime newspaper of the same name.Der Forverts
He has also written several invited articles and guest opinions for The New York Times, and is the author of six books.{{cite news |newspaper=The Jewish Press
|title=Veteran Newspaperman Seth Lipsky Reminisces On His Career
|author=Ellilot Resnick |date=February 11, 2011 |page=10}}2011 Interview had "five books" - this was before his 2015 The Floating Kilogram
Early life and education
Born 1946 in Brooklyn, from age one Lipsky was "raised in a secular Jewish family in Great Barrington, Mass" and graduated from Harvard University.{{Citation
|url=http://redbrickagency.com/seth-lipsky-exclusive
|title=Seth Lipsky exclusive|date=December 17, 2012 }} in 1968.
The Jewish Daily Forward
{{Main|The Jewish Daily Forward}}
In 1990, Lipsky started an English-language weekly version of The Jewish Daily Forward (The Forward), which was previously a widely read Yiddish-language daily newspaper. Lipsky resigned in 2000 after a clash with the owners of The Forward, who threatened to shut down the English-language publication unless Lipsky was fired. The dispute was over Lipsky's editorials supporting Ronald Reagan and the war in Vietnam.{{cite news |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Katherine E. |title=Metro Business: Newspaper Founder Resigns Under Fire |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/14/nyregion/metro-business-newspaper-founder-resigns-under-fire.html |work=The New York Times |date=April 14, 2000}}
The New York Times described a "generation of Lipsky-trained journalists" emerging from The Forward, including Ira Stoll, Philip Gourevitch, and Jonathan Rosen.{{Cite news |last=Barringer |first=Felicity |date=2002-04-11 |title=Paper and Editor to Tilt At Liberal Windmills |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/11/nyregion/paper-and-editor-to-tilt-at-liberal-windmills.html |access-date=2025-01-13 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Rosen and others have cited Lipsky as a mentor.{{Cite web |last=Algemeiner |first=The |date=2016-09-18 |title=The New York Sun’s Seth Lipsky, CBS Correspondent Lara Logan Honored at Algemeiner Summer Benefit (PHOTOS) - Algemeiner.com |url=https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/09/18/the-new-york-suns-seth-lipsky-cbs-correspondent-lara-logan-honored-at-algemeiner-summer-benefit-photos/ |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=www.algemeiner.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Interview with Jonathan Rosen |url=https://www.maxraskin.com/interviews/jonathan-rosen |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=Interviews with Max Raskin |language=en-US}}
The New York Sun
{{Main|The New York Sun}}
In 2002 he founded and began serving as editor of The New York Sun. Although the paper only lasted six years, and gave away more copies than it sold,{{cite news
|newspaper=The New York Times
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/nyregion/22sun.html
|title=After 6 Years, N.Y. Sun Finds Itself at a Crossroads
|author=James Barron |date=September 21, 2008}} a spokesperson at the United Nations admitted, after a criticism by The Sun, that the paper "does punch way above its circulation number, on occasion."{{cite magazine |magazine=The Nation
|author=Scott Sherman |date=April 30, 2007
|title=Sun-rise in New York
|url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070430/sherman}} Lipsky's
problems were compounded in that he began and operated at a time when the newspaper industry's situation was described as "pretty grim."{{cite news
|newspaper=The Bryan Times
|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K9IJAAAAIBAJ&pg=4827,1750906&dq=new-york-sun&hl=en
|title=New York Sun will shine again
|author=Larry McShane |date=April 14, 2002
|publisher=Associated Press |page=3}}
Among its noteworthy "social life" features were the paper's Along the Wine Trail wine column Frank J. Prial, Decantations: Reflections on Wine by the New York Times Wine Critic, St. Martin's Griffin, 2002, p. 16 and crossword puzzle.{{cite web |last1=Gaffney |first1=Matt |title=Who writes better crossword puzzles, humans or computers? |url=https://slate.com/technology/2006/07/who-writes-better-crossword-puzzles-humans-or-computers.html |website=Slate Magazine |access-date=October 26, 2021 |date=July 12, 2006}}
In 1991, Lipsky was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for his Forward editorials "on a variety of national issues, including some of specific interest to the American Jewish community."{{cite web | url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/seth-lipsky | title=The 1991 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Editorial Writing: Seth Lipsky of Forward, a New York City weekly | work=The Pulitzer Prizes | access-date=December 2, 2024}}
=Shutting down the print edition=
When it was time to give his 110 full-time employees the bad news, he made it "'in an orderly way' .. not filing for bankruptcy .. pay employees through November .. health insurance .. through Dec. 31."{{cite news
|newspaper=The New York Times
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/nyregion/30sun.html
|title=Losing Money, New York Sun Is to Shut Down
|author=James Barron |date=September 30, 2008}} When asked why the shutdown, Lipsky said "we needed additional funds ...
the 2008 financial collapse was sweeping the world, and the Internet was emerging as a challenge to traditional newspapering."{{cite magazine |magazine=New York magazine
|quote=Seth Lipsky chose a bad month to find new backers ... The Web 2.0 ethos was taking hold in the newspaper world
|date=January 31, 2008
|url=https://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/51013
|title=The Seven-Year Run of the New York 'Sun'}}
Selected works
- The Citizens Constitution: An Annotated Guide{{cite book
|title=The Citizens Constitution: An Annotated Guide
|isbn=978-0465-01858-1 |author=Seth Lipsky |year=2009|publisher=Basic Books }}
- The Rise of Abraham Cahan{{cite book
|title=The Rise of Abraham Cahan
|isbn=978-0805-24210-2 |author=Seth Lipsky |year=2013|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing }}
- The Floating Kilogram{{cite book
|title=The Floating Kilogram
|isbn=978-0996-12320-4 |author=Seth Lipsky |year=2015|publisher=New York Sun Books }}{{cite news |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal
|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444914904577619383218788846
|title=The Gold Standard Goes Mainstream
|date=August 29, 2012}}
Teaching
A 2011 interview's overview listed second "teaching at Columbia University's School of Journalism."{{cite web
|url=https://current.org/wp-content/uploads/archive-site/news/news0920columbia.shtml
|title=Downie-Schudson report on journalism, 2009
|quote=In the Wall Street Journal, another Columbia professor, Seth Lipsky, opposes ...}}
Personal
Lipsky served in the U.S. Armed Forces and wrote for Stars and Stripes while in Vietnam. He is married to Amity Shlaes, a columnist and author.{{cite news
|newspaper=The New York Times
|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/13/style/amity-shlaes-married-to-seth-lipsky.html
|title=Amity Shlaes Married to Seth Lipsky |date=June 13, 1988}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.nysun.com The New York Sun]
- [http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/slipsky/bio.html Biography page from the Wall Street Journal]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipsky, Seth}}
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:Date of birth missing (living people)
Category:The Wall Street Journal people
Category:The New York Sun people
Category:American newspaper editors
Category:21st-century American newspaper founders