A Look at The New York Sun's Style Guide
by Heidi Bruggink Published: October 1, 2007
Tags: Media, The New York Sun One SL LLC
We recently got a look at the in-house style guide of The New York Sun. Like many such documents (The New York Times actually publishes its own in book form) it can be taken to offer some insight into the editorial positioning of the publication. We found, among the many entries, the following:
"aliya, not aliyah. Jewish immigration to Israel. Literally 'going up.' Opposite is yerida, the 'going down' of Israeli Jews to live in other countries, like America.
"Avery Fisher Hall: At Lincoln Center."
"Charedi. Literally, trembling. Prefer 'fervently Orthodox' or 'black-hat' to this Hebrew word. Avoid the term 'ultra-Orthodox.'"
"Decter, Midge. The Cold War heroine. Note the spelling of her last name."
"Ethnic. Means not Jewish or Christian."
"Gentile. Not Jewish or genteel."
"Jerusalem. Avoid the phrase 'Arab East Jerusalem.'"
"Matzo. Unleavened bread eaten at Passover, also called the bread of affliction."
"Peace process. Confine use to quoted material. Use the Oslo negotiations or the Arab-Israeli negotiations or the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs."
"Prime ministers of Israel. Our readers can be counted on to know of which country Prime Minister Sharon heads the government. Likewise with the American president."
"Reveal, revelation. Use only in quoted matter or when referring to what happened at Mount Sinai…"
"West Bank and Gaza Strip. Territories under Israeli control from 1967 onward. 'The territories' is acceptable on second reference, as are Judea or Samaria for the Southern and Northern regions of the West Bank. Avoid the phrase 'occupied territories.'"
UPDATE: This one was too good to leave out...
"communist, socialist. See AP stylebook. Any favorable reference to a communist must be shown to either the editor or the managing editor of the Sun before publication."
― and what, Thursday, 4 October 2007 13:54 (eighteen years ago)
Circulation
The Audit Bureau of Circulations confirmed that in its first six months of publication the Sun had an average circulation of just under 18,000.[13] By 2005 the paper reported an estimated circulation of 45,000.[14] In December 2005 the Sun withdrew from the Audit Bureau of Circulations to join the Certified Audit of Circulations, whose other New York clients are the free papers The Village Voice and amNewYork, and began an aggressive campaign of free distribution in select neighborhoods.[15][16] As of 2007 the paper claims a readership of 150,000.[17]
The Sun's online edition has been accessible for free since August 2006.[18]
While the Sun claims "150,000 of New York City's Most Influential Readers Every Day," according to April 2007 article in The Nation, its [the Sun's] own audit indicates that "the Sun is selling 13,211 hard copies a day and giving away more than 85,000. (By contrast, the Daily News sells about 700,000 copies a day.) In an attempt to lasso subscribers in certain New York ZIP codes, the Sun recently offered free subscriptions for a full year, an unusual way for a newspaper to build circulation."[11]
― Hurting 2, Friday, 5 October 2007 04:31 (eighteen years ago)
we get 2 free copies every morning, one addressed to me & one to my wife. what a waste of paper. some of the arts writing is actually good but the front/new section is surreal. a few months back, there was an editorial calling for dick cheney to run for president. and I don't think it was ironic, either.
― m coleman, Friday, 5 October 2007 10:03 (eighteen years ago)