Stern 's Item

In Editor & Publisher, a secondhand dealer last week advertised: "GOING FAST! Machinery, Equipment & Supplies of the Philadelphia Record . . ." It was in February 1947, during a Newspaper Guild strike, that Publisher J. David Stern abruptly sold his Record, two Camden (N.J.) newspapers and a radio station for $12 million to the rival Philadelphia Bulletin. Pot-bellied Publisher Stern retired to a Manhattan penthouse to chain-smoke Optimo Dunbar cigars and dictate his memoirs. But son David III ("Tommy"), now 39, itched to get back in the business, ranged far & wide seeking a good buy. He found it in New Orleans. For $2,000,000, which his father helped him pay, Tommy last week bought the New Orleans Item from Publisher Ralph Nicholson.

As chairman of the Item's board of directors--"a, synonym for retired old gentleman"--David Stern said he would take a back seat. Publisher and majority stockholder would be bustling little Tommy, who climbed the ladder from cub reporter to publisher on the family's Camden Courier and Post, with time out for Army service and a novel (Francis, a 1946 satire about a talking Army mule). The Sterns persuaded a group of New Orleans business and professional leaders to buy a minority stock interest in the Item.

Once edited by Poet Lafcadio Hearn, the 72-year-old Item had its liveliest years (1891-1906) under gun-toting Editor & Publisher Dominick O'Malley, who was twice wounded in pitched battles. In the 1930s it slumped in prestige and circulation, partly because it acted as a mouthpiece for Boss Huey Long while the rival Times-Picayune- whiplashed his regime.

In 1941, Ralph Nicholson bought the rundown Item for a song. The roof leaked so badly that the city editor kept a bucket on his desk in wet weather. Publisher Nicholson spent $350,000 in a new plant and equipment, boosted salaries, hired as editor Reporter Clayton Fritchey, who had won a Pulitzer citation for the Cleveland Press by sending six grafting police officers to prison. Under Editor Fritchey, the Item became the best-dressed newspaper in New Orleans with its short, snappy stories and eye-catching pictures. Circulation climbed from 67,000 to 97,000. This week 45-year-old Editor Fritchey got--and accepted--an invitation from Tommy Stern to stay on and keep his present staff.

*Published by L. K. Nicholson, no kin to Ralph.

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