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

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, Missouri, 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, and failed to compete successfully with the well-established ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a 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-Democra ...

''. 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 his company's 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 a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1852 until 1986. The paper began operations on July 1, 1852, as ''The Daily Missouri Democrat'', changing its name to ''The Missouri Democrat'' in 18 ...

'' in 1986 allowed him this opportunity. Ingersoll used high-risk junk bonds to raise millions of dollars to finance several 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 was 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, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. the Monday–Friday ...

'' and ''Barron's''. The ''Sun'' began publishing on September 25, 1989, with Ingersoll as editor-in-chief. The paper was the first American metropolitan daily since ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American Conservatism, conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on Politics of the United States, national politics. Its broadsheet daily edit ...

'' 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 that 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 (: 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 of a lay ...

. Growth of the circulation of the ''Sun'' 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 on April 25, 1990, and the newspaper's last edition was published on that date.

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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
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 {{StLouis-stub

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External links