Rupert Murdoch launches US Sun

U.K.-based newspaper The Sun announced in a tweet on Thursday to its 1.6 million followers it had launched a U.S. version of the tabloid.

The Sun, which is part of Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, is being run by a team of journalists in Manhattan responsible for producing unique content specifically for U.S. readers. 

Hello America!
We’ve just launched our new site: https://t.co/glvzOwGqJ0 pic.twitter.com/SUJ2XEy6IE

— The Sun US (@TheSunUS) January 8, 2020

The U.S. Sun also has a substantial focus on tabloid fodder out of the U.K., with many of its featured stories focusing on “megxit,” the partial exit from royal family duties of Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan.

The Sun is extremely popular online in the U.S., averaging 16 million unique users per month, according to ComScore.

While both The Sun and Daily Mail continue to thrive online, both papers continue to struggle on the print side, forcing both to reallocate resources to the profitable digital side.

Many U.S. newspapers have experienced downsizing and layoffs in recent years.

In 2019, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet predicted that “most local newspapers are going to die in the next five years.”

“The greatest crisis in American journalism is the death of local news,” Baquet said at the International News Media Association World Congress in New York City on Friday.

“I don’t know what the answer is. Their economic model is gone. I think most local newspapers in America are going to die in the next five years, except for the ones that have been bought by a local billionaire,” Baquet added.

The Sun first launched in September 1964.