Newsday's not small. It's #9 in daily circulating newspapers, with only USA Today, Wall Street Journal, the NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post, NY Daily News, Chicago Tribune and the NY Post having more.
In terms of NYC, it's much smaller than the Times/Post/NYDN because they cover LI not NYC. But the others' sports coverage is either not their forte (Times) or sensationalized (Post/NYDN).