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
''The Philadelphia Record'' was a daily newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1877 until 1947. It became among the most circulated papers in the city and was at some points the circulation leader.
History
''The Public Record'' ...
'' from 1928 to 1947. He published other newspapers including the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' from 1933 to 1939.
Biography
Stern was born to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in Philadelphia in 1886, the son of Sophie (née Muhr) and David Stern. In 1902 he graduated from
William Penn Charter School
William Penn Charter School (commonly known as Penn Charter or simply PC) is an independent school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1689 at the urging of William Penn as the "Public Grammar School" and chartered in 1689 to be op ...
. After attending the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...
for undergraduate work (1906) and law school (1909), Stern got his start in the newspaper field in 1908 with a reporter position at the Philadelphia '' Public Ledger''. Within three years he had moved on to become general manager of the ''Providence News''. At age 25 he purchased the
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest ...
where he acquired and combined the city's two evening papers, subsequently selling the combined operation to the owners of the morning papers.
In 1919 Stern purchased the
Camden, New Jersey
Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 20 ...
''Morning Courier''. In 1926 he acquired the ''Camden Morning Post'' and combined the two to create the ''
Courier-Post
The ''Courier-Post'' is a morning daily newspaper that serves South Jersey in the Delaware Valley. It is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and serves most of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties. The paper has 30,313 daily paid subscrib ...
''. And in June 1928, after the death of publisher
Rodman Wanamaker
Lewis Rodman Wanamaker (February 13, 1863 – March 9, 1928) was an American businessman and heir to the Wanamaker's department store fortune. In addition to operating stores in Philadelphia, New York City, and Paris, he was a patron of the art ...
, Stern purchased ''
The Philadelphia Record
''The Philadelphia Record'' was a daily newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1877 until 1947. It became among the most circulated papers in the city and was at some points the circulation leader.
History
''The Public Record'' ...
'' with the help of $2.5 million loan from businessman
Albert M. Greenfield
Albert Monroe Greenfield (August 4, 1887 – January 5, 1967) was a real estate broker and developer who built his company into a vast East Coast network of department stores, banks, finance companies, hotels, newspapers, transportation companie ...
. During the 1930s, disputes between Stern and Moses Annenberg, publisher of ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pen ...
'', became a "publisher's war".
Late in 1933, Stern acquired the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'', then known as the ''New York Evening Post''"Philadelphian Buys New York Evening Post" ''
Pittsburgh Press
''The Pittsburgh Press'' (formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'') was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1884 to 1992. At one time, the ''Press'' was the second larg ...
''. December 8, 1933. Viewed at
Google News
Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web.
Google re ...
. until he removed the "Evening" from its name. He sold the ''Post'' to
Dorothy Schiff
Dorothy Schiff (March 11, 1903 – August 30, 1989) was an American businesswoman who was the owner and then publisher of the ''New York Post'' for nearly 40 years. She was a granddaughter of financier Jacob Schiff. Schiff was interested in soc ...
and her husband George Backer in 1939."Dorothy Schiff, 86, Ex-Post Owner, Dies" ''The New York Times''. August 31, 1989.
Stern was the director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia during 1935 and 1936, and he served the U.S.
War Production Board
The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Su ...
on its printing and publishing advisory board.
In July 1940, Stern bought radio station
WHAT
What or WHAT may refer to:
* What, an interrogative pronoun and adverb
* "What?", one of the Five Ws used in journalism
Film and television
* ''What!'' (film) or ''The Whip and the Body'', a 1963 Italian film directed by Mario Bava
* '' Wha ...
in Philadelphia for a reported $10,000.
Stern was an early supporter of labor, and in 1934 the first to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with his editorial staff. Nevertheless he was forced to shut down the ''Record'' and sell all his holdings (including radio station
WCAU
WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jer ...
and two Camden newspapers) to the ''
Philadelphia Bulletin
The ''Philadelphia Bulletin'' was a daily evening newspaper published from 1847 to 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the largest circulation newspaper in Philadelphia for 76 years and was once the largest evening newspaper in the United ...
'' after a strike by the American Newspaper Guild against his papers in 1947. Stern announced publicly that he had made a "grave mistake in recognizing the Guild".
Politically Stern was a liberal Democrat. He supported
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928.
The son of an Irish-American mother and a Ci ...
in the
1928 Presidential Election
The following elections occurred in the year 1928.
Africa
* 1928 Southern Rhodesian general election
Asia
* 1928 Japanese general election
* 1928 Persian legislative election
* 1928 Philippine House of Representatives elections
* 1928 Philippin ...
Stern wrote a science fiction novel published in 1952, ''Eidolon: A Philosophical Phantasy Built on a Syllogism''. ''The New York Times'' recalled it as "Eldoion, dealing with newspapers, science and religion". He also wrote an autobiography published in 1962, ''Memoirs of a Maverick Publisher''.
Personal
Long retired from the newspaper business and living in Florida, Stern died on October 10, 1971, at age 85 in
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. The populati ...
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
."Former Publisher" ''
Reading Eagle
The ''Reading Eagle'' is the major daily newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania. A family-owned newspaper until the spring of 2019, its reported circulation is 37,000 (daily) and 50,000 (Sundays). It serves the Reading and Berks County region of ...
''. October 11, 1971. Viewed at Google News."The Philadelphia Case" ''Milwaukee Sentinel''. February 20, 1947. Viewed at Google News. He was survived by his wife, Juliet (Lit) Stern, and two sons and two daughters. Their son David Stern III, also in the newspaper business, was the creator of
Francis the Talking Mule
Francis the Talking Mule was a mule character who gained popularity during the 1950s as the star of seven popular Universal-International film comedies. The character originated in the 1946 novel ''Francis'' by former U.S. Army Captain David S ...
."David Stern III – created films' 'Talking Mule'" ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...