The sun came out yesterday—the New York Sun, that is.

Leaders of the Sun, the first daily paper launched in New York City since 1985, say the paper will offer its readers “an alternative” to the New York Times.

The paper, which had a first press run of 75,000 copies yesterday and is distributed at 4,000 newsstands throughout the city’s five boroughs, runs with a small staff—a staff that’s full of Harvard graduates.

The president and editor of the newspaper is Seth A. Lipsky ’68, who worked for The Crimson as an undergraduate, and former Crimson President Ira E. Stoll ’94 is the Sun’s new vice president and managing editor.

Stoll, who first met Lipsky in 1993 while he was on campus for his 25th class reunion, said the newspaper is an exciting opportunity for both of them.

They had worked together at the Forward, a Jewish newspaper published out of New York. When the Forward failed to go daily, the men decided to move on, Stoll said.

In recent years, Stoll has been the editor of Smartertimes.com, a website that publishes a daily critique of the New York Times.

According to the site, that project is “dedicated to the proposition that New York’s dominant daily has grown complacent, slow, and inaccurate.” The site also aims at “assembling a community of readers to support a new newspaper that would offer an alternative.”

Stoll said he has spent much of the last year preparing for the launch of the paper and hiring staff.

The Sun will try to fill a void in New York City coverage, he said.

“There was room for a high-quality paper focused on New York City,” Stoll said.

Former Crimson executive Rachel P. Kovner ’01 works as one of the paper’s eight news writers.

Kovner, who among other beats will cover the New York City schools, said she sees an opening for the paper “because the New York Times has had a more national focus in recent years, and we will cover New York almost exclusively.”

Stoll said the new paper would attract a readership looking for a high-quality “lively, but serious newspaper.”

“We’d like to get a paid subscription of 25- to 30,000 by the end of the year,” he said.