you're listening to the fuck sexton show podcast make sure you subscribe to the podcast on the i heart radio at or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey everybody welcome the bucks sexton show our friend David if food joins us now he is the publisher of the New York Sun which has gone through a 2.0 or perhaps a 3.0 a redo a rebirth a renaissance even David tell everybody about what's going on with the sun.

Yeah buck we're referring to it now is the third coming of the New York Sun if you recall this the sun was founded back in 1833 was the first successful penny daily.

But suffice it to say that it's a newspaper that carries whether the finest of traditions of American journalism it's been a part really of crafting what journalism looks like in this country today.

And certainly bridging the massive Gulf that existed at the time of its founding between publishers and readers and today's environment we see a similar.

Gulf that's opened up between readers and publishers certainly trust is at ridiculously low levels I'm sure you've seen these numbers you've spoken about these numbers I mean every time a new poll comes out the bottom falls out again.

And you know we see the sun as a publication because of its history because of its tradition because of its real adherence to the values that have made America a unique political experiment in the annals of history it's a port for the constitution it's view of all things taking place in the world through the lens.

Of American exceptionalism it really is a paper that has a special place in the hearts of many Americans and contains the opportunity to really bring back and close that gap bring back that trust.

Between the American public and journalists and publishers and you know since we've been back at it now we're about 18 months in.

We've been growing tremendously we're welcoming back millions of readers to the new sun and we're very excited with the progress but also recognize that there's a lot more work to be done and there's a lot more growth ahead of us what do you think happened to one of your competitors the New York Times you know I grew up in a household where the New York Times was in paper form delivered to my house every day both of my parents were New York Times readers and now to even.

Bring up the New York Times in the sex and household when I'm back in New York visiting it's like a forbidden word you know what happened over there well you know it's interesting that you mentioned the times the the sun is most often seen as a sort of counterweight to the time because we've sort of both have 200 years of that history there's

Pulitzer prizes in both of our history it's it's a it's a New York City brewed with that gothic mass head and a focus on arts and culture and politics like like the New York Times but suffice it to say that you know in terms of the substance the sun is everything that the New York Times is not I mean the New York Times is suddenly a figurehead it represents a lot of what we've seen in terms of the erosion of standards in media journalism America today the way we're going to do it.

In terms of the American today the Washington Post for example is is another one you know you have a situation where instead of seeing their role as holding the powerful to account on behalf of the public a lot of these papers effectively serve as the enforcement arm of the interests that they favor they are holding the public to account on behalf of the powers the powers that they favor you know they become a sort of thought police and you know it's our view that this

sorry state of affairs really underpins a lot of the rot that we see in a democracy I mean in the end of the day the first amendment and the press in general are supposed to be the institution that captures us when all else fails the press are supposed to serve as the back stuff of democracy when government agencies when politicians when major industries go off the rail that the press are supposed to hold them to account and you know without that you have a certain kind of a

lot of that you have a situation where you know one of these big galaids in American public life have no real checks and balances and you see in sort of how they work together to orchestrate for threat outcomes that are very often a not in the interest of the American public in the

interests of the American people so you know we believe in a form of journalism that puts the American people first we serve the people we answer to the people only we are primarily a subscription based business you know the vast majority of our revenue comes from from paying subscribers by our website we don't have major

advertisers that we're beholden to for example and that's how we believe it should be a paper that answers to the American public and serves the American public and we see that as sort of the way

forward and the solution and the process of Asian for American journalism what do you think is going to happen now that we're entering into another presidential election cycle the last time around

the Washington Post effectively had said that to tell the truth is to be anti Trump I mean the New York Times felt the same way whether they said it out loud or not as a as an entity as an institution and see an

N certainly became an entirely anti Trump network we know serious person could think that CNN under Jeff Zuckers tenure in the Trump era was anything other than just rapidly anti Trump but that came with a

cost for those those entities that pretend that they are you know nonpartisan unbiased journalistic journalistic operations do you think they're just going to flip back toward that or they're going to try to walk a somewhat more

a delicate line there's still going to be a post to Trump Democrat of course but maybe not the same degree or will they what what do you think happens I mean does does the pendulum swing all the way

...