Yes Virginia, The Sun is Setting

"Papa says, 'If you see it in the Sun it is so. Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus? "
-Virginia O'Hanlon

An attempt to give new life to one of the oldest names in newspaper history has failed. The new New York Sun is folding today after a seven-year run. The reason: failure to make a profit.

In 1897, 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote her letter to the original Sun (which merged with the World Telegram in 1950) asking about Santa Claus. Francis Pharcellus Church replied with a now classic editorial which began...

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age."

The Sun was the first successfully mass marketed newspaper of the 19th Century. Publisher Benjamin Day sold it for a penny and focused the content on local news, sex, violence and human interest stories. That move started the Penny Press era and - for better or worse - defined news as it exists today. In fact, it was an editor of the Sun who first coined the definition of news as "man bites dog."

A look at the new Sun's Web site shows why it wasn't able to compete on a digital playing field. The same day the Sun is folding, Poynter announced the redesign of three papers: the Hartford Courant, Chicago Tribune and the Oklahoman, which bills itself as "designed to connect with you."

We still live in a skeptical age, but maybe we can hope that our definition of news will evolve online for the better.

Then again, anyone want to see what happens when you mix Mentos Mints with Coke?