The ''New Orleans Item-Tribune'', sometimes rendered in press accounts as the ''New Orleans Item and Tribune'', was an American

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

published in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, in various forms from 1871 to 1958.

Early history

The newspaper, referred to in 1941 as "the south's oldest afternoon daily paper", was first published in 1875 as ''The New Orleans Item'', an afternoon paper. Subscriptions were six dollars a year, and the paper claimed to have the largest circulation in New Orleans, describing itself as "Impartial, Able, Newsy, and Bright." In 1924, it spawned a morning sister, the ''Morning Tribune''. The papers published a single Sunday edition, the ''Item-Tribune'', beginning December 21, 1924. It expanded its name to become the ''Sunday Item-Tribune'' on February 10, 1935.

Comic-book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and written narrative, ...

artist

Jack Sparling John Edmond Sparling (June 21, 1916 – February 15, 1997), was a Canadian comics artist. Biography Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sparling moved to the United States as a child. He received his early arts training at the Arts and Crafts Club in New ...

worked briefly as a gag cartoonist for the paper circa the late 1930s.Jack Sparling
at the

Lambiek Comiclopedia Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ). His son Boris Kousemaker has been the owner since 2007. From 1968 to 2015, it was located in the Ke ...

''Item-Tribune'' years

In 1936, the two papers'

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of in height. Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper ...

format was changed to tabloid size, and on January 13, 1941, the papers merged as the daily and Sunday ''Item-Tribune''. The term was already in use before this, with ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine, for example, referring to the two papers in this combined form in 1926. The ''Tribune'' ceased publication on January 11, 1941, though the ''Sunday Item-Tribune'' did not change its name. On June 27, 1941, the newspaper's longtime publisher and president, Colonel James M. Thomson, announced the paper's sale to Ralph Nicholson, vice president, treasurer and general manager of the ''

Tampa Times The ''Tampa Times'', or ''Tampa Daily Times'', was a daily newspaper founded in Tampa, Florida, in 1893. It was started by the consolidation of two newspapers by the Tampa Publishing Company, whose vice president was W. B. Henderson, a leading b ...

'', with Thomson to serve as president of the Item Co., Inc., the newly formed entity that purchased the paper. In 1949, David Stern III, author of the ''

Francis the Talking Mule Francis the Talking Mule is a fictional mule who first appeared in three short stories written for ''Esquire magazine'' by David Stern, which he later combined into the 1946 novel ''Francis''. This was the basis of a series of seven Universal-I ...

'' books that later became a

film series A film series or movie series is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series. It is a type of series fiction. This article explains what film series are and gives brief examples ...

, and the son of prominent Philadelphia publisher

J. David Stern Julius David Stern (April 1, 1886 – October 10, 1971) was an American newspaper publisher, best known as the liberal Democratic publisher of ''The Philadelphia Record'' from 1928 to 1947. He published other newspapers including the ''New York P ...

, purchased the paper for $2 million. He ran the paper until its 1958 merger. The paper, which is preserved by the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

and

The Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

from its June 11, 1902, issue through its last, September 14, 1958, was published daily until dropping the Saturday edition beginning December 17, 1950.

Merger with ''Daily States''

In 1958, the ''Item-Tribune'' merged with the ''Daily States'' (founded in 1880) to form the New Orleans ''Daily States-Item''. In 1962, publisher and businessman Samuel I. Newhouse bought the morning ''

Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune , The New Orleans Advocate'' (commonly called ''The Times-Picayune'' or the ''T-P'') is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ancestral publications of other names date back to January 25, 1837. The cu ...

'' as well as the afternoon ''States-Item'', which continued to be published separately until they were merged and combined in 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Orleans Item-Tribune Defunct newspapers published in Louisiana Newspapers published in New Orleans Newspapers established in 1875 Publications disestablished in 1958 1875 establishments in Louisiana 1958 disestablishments in Louisiana