Although there have been many bleak projections about the Sun’s future in such a competitive marketplace, Stoll said they are not deterred.

“No one is under the impression that this is going to be easy,” he said.

The Sun’s editorial page will be more conservative than that of the New York Times, with regular contributors such as Peggy Noonan, a speechwriter for President Reagan. Though Stoll’s Smartertimes.com has been criticized for its heavy focus on the Israeli conflict and its Zionist approach, staff members said editorial content would not affect the Sun’s news coverage.

“Our reporting staff is ideologically diverse,” Kovner said.

The paper, which will vary from 12 to 18 pages a day, carried nine stories on its front page yesterday, including pieces on a court battle over New York wine sales, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s welfare reform position and an Associated Press story about the discovery of an ant colony stretching from Italy to Spain.

The Sun’s name and masthead are borrowed from the original New York Sun newspaper that was published between 1833 and 1950.

The new incarnation of the Sun is backed financially by Canadian newspaper baron Conrad Black and several individual New Yorkers.

Initial investment in the paper is estimated to be between $20 and $25 million, according to the Associated Press.

—Material from the Associated Press was used in the compilation of this article.