The New York Sun, which started publication six years ago as a conservative alternative to the New York Times, will publish its final edition today as it failed to raise capital needed to extend the newspaper's life after losing an estimated $1 million a month.

The clock finally ran out the newspaper, which started in 2002 at an era when budding print media was on the upswing and investors were willing to put their money, to have a say in the media and business capital of the world.

The paper had been losing money for a number of years and its present backers announced the need for more finance if their investment were to continue.

The New York Sun's co-founder and editor in chief Seth Lipsky published a letter describing the dire straits the paper was in and if it was unable to find new backers, then the paper would have to shut down by 1 October 2008.

It was reputed to be an aggressive reporting paper with excellent coverage on arts, culture and sports. Although it was losing an estimated $1 million a month, its advertising income was better than last year, though it was showing revenue of only $6 million this year.

Lipsky, was said to be scrambling for some investors as late as yesterday in a bid to keep the newspaper afloat, but the recent crisis at Wall Street has so far kept potential investors away.

Co-founder and managing editor Ira Stoll said that a small team would be kept back and the business operations would wind up by the end of the year. The newspaper had more than 100 employees.

According to its media kit posted online, the Sun, which published five days a week, had a print readership of 113,300 in Manhattan and 2 million unique internet visitors a month.

The Sun in its six years of existence focused on issues that were important to New Yorkers such as political corruption and taxes that even the then Mayor, Michael Bloomberg had to admit that he always read the paper even though it had attacked many of his policies.

The paper also brought a cultured awareness to its arts and books coverage which local competition tended to bypass.

With Lipsky at the helm and managing editor Ira Stoll, the Sun vigorously defended Israel, raised the issue on Iran and backed President Bush's decision to attack Iraq.

The newspaper gave an alternative to New Yorker's who did not like The New York Times, and there were many of those in the city.

Rewind to the year 1833 when the original New York Sun was founded by Benjamin Day. Those days the paper was sold for a penny and it created the modern, mass-circulation newspaper business.

The Sun rose to its peak under the stewardship of the great editor, Charles Dana in 1860s. He was at the receiving end by Horace Greeley's Tribune for his eagerness to fight a war against slavery. He was later on named by Lincoln as ''assistant secretary of war.''

The original Sun was run till 1950, when it was sold to Roy Howard, who merged it into the World-Telegram and Sun. It folded in 1960 when many newspapers in New York closed excepting the leaders, the News, the Post, and the Times.