The ''St. Louis Sun'' was a short-lived daily newspaper based in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, published by

Ingersoll Publications 21st Century Media was an American media company. It was the successor of Ingersoll Publications and Journal Register Company, and it was succeeded by Digital First Media. The company operated more than 350 multi-platform products in 992 comm ...

. The ''Sun'' began publishing on September 25, 1989, but was never as competitive as the well-established ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...

''. Seven months after it started, the ''Sun'' ceased operations on April 25, 1990. In 1984 Ingersoll Publications Company purchased the free weekly Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis. In 1985 Ingersoll Publications Company chief executive Ralph Ingersoll II began planning to solidify its entrance into the St. Louis newspaper market. Ingersoll wanted to compete directly with the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', and the failure of the

St. Louis Globe-Democrat The ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat'' was originally a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1852 until 1986. When the trademark registration on the name expired, it was then used as an unrelated free historically themed paper. Orig ...

in 1986 gave him the opportunity to do just that. Ingersoll used high-risk junk bonds to raise millions of dollars to finance a number of newspaper acquisitions including the $20 million his company needed to launch the ''St. Louis Sun'' as a tabloid-style paper. In 1988 Ingersoll Publications purchased The Alton Telegraph and Mississippi Valley Offset, where the paper would be printed. Ingersoll Publications Company announced its ''Post-Dispatch'' competitor in March 1989. The tabloid newspaper would be modeled after other papers such as the ''

Rocky Mountain News The ''Rocky Mountain News'' (nicknamed the ''Rocky'') was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As ...

'' and ''Barron's''. The ''Sun'' began publishing on September 25 with Ingersoll as editor in chief. The paper was the first American metropolitan daily since ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...

'' was published in 1982. For the first three months of 1990, the newspaper claimed sales averaging over 100,000 a day. The ''Sun'' earned much local notoriety for a full-tabloid-page headline which read "He Bit Hers, She Sued His", which had to do with a lawsuit by a woman against a man who bit her

buttocks The buttocks (singular: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed ...

. Growth of the ''Suns circulation nonetheless fell short of the company's expectations in the critical month of April. The paper's business strategy backfired, cannibalizing ad revenues at its sister publication, the Suburban Journals. Ingersoll announced the newspaper's closure April 25, 1990, the newspaper's last edition.

References

1989 establishments in Missouri 1990 disestablishments in Missouri Defunct newspapers published in Missouri Newspapers established in 1989 Publications disestablished in 1990 Newspapers published in St. Louis

External Links

St. Louis Sun Newspaper Collection
finding aid at th
St. Louis Public LibrarySt. Louis Sun Photograph Collection
finding aid at th
St. Louis Public Library
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See also

References

External Links