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 Post from 1933 to 1939.

Biography Stern was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia in 1886, the son of Sophie (née Muhr) and David Stern. In 1914 or 1915 he moved to Springfield, Illinois where he acquired and combined the city's two evening papers, subsequently selling the combined operation to the owners of the morning papers. until he removed the "Evening" from its name. He sold the Post to Dorothy Schiff and her husband George Backer in 1939.

Stern was the director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia during 1935 and 1936, and he served the U.S. War Production Board on its printing and publishing advisory board.

In July 1940, Stern bought radio station WHAT 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 and two Camden newspapers) to the Philadelphia Bulletin after a strike by the American Newspaper Guild against his papers in 1947. He was survived by his wife, Juliet (Lit) Stern, and two sons and two daughters.