Stone ring next to New York Times (4)
I believe the answer is:
onyx
'stone' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'ring next to new york times' is the wordplay.
'ring' becomes 'o'.
'next to' says to put letters next to each other.
'new york' becomes 'ny'.
'times' becomes 'x' (multiplication sign).
'o'+'ny'+'x'='ONYX'
(Other definitions for onyx that I've seen before include "Kind of agate" , "Banded gemstone" , "Form of quartz" , "material for making cameos" , "Stone like marble with layered colours" .)