David Stern III

David Stern III is the son of prominent Philadelphia publisher J. David Stern. In 1949, he purchased the New Orleans Item-Tribune for $2,000,000. He ran the paper until its 1958 merging with the Daily States newspaper.
David Stern is the author of the Francis the Talking Mule books, that later became a film series.
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 as well as the afternoon States-Item, which continued to be published separately until they were merged and combined in 1980.