BLYTHEVILLE, Ark. -- Tennyson Publishing Co., which includes newspapers in Blytheville and Osceola, Ark., as well as a printing company, has become affiliated with Rust Communications of Cape Girardeau.
Rust Communications is the largest non-metropolitan daily and weekly newspaper group in Missouri.
The announcement was made jointly today by David Tennyson, publisher of the Village News in Blytheville and the Citizen-Journal in Osceola, and Gary Rust, president of Rust Communications. The transaction will be completed Jan. 3.
The Village News is a twice-weekly independent newspaper that is distributed free to more than 10,000 homes in Blytheville. The Citizen-Journal is distributed to more than 7,000 homes in Osceola.
Both newspapers dominate the respective markets in advertising and circulation on the day of distribution; they compete with the 4,344 distribution daily Courier News in Blytheville and the weekly Osceola Times.
The Courier News and Osceola Times are part of an ownership transfer taking place from Park Communications, a publicly held, New York-based communications conglomerate, to American Publishing Co., a publicly held Canadian company. American, which has extensive newspaper holdings in England and Canada, now owns 265 publications in the United States.
"Rust's capital investment in the Village News and Citizen-Journal operation was intended to allow more effective competition with Park newspapers in Blytheville and Osceola," Tennyson said. "Now that Park has sold out, it will allow more effective competition with the American newspapers in Blytheville and Osceola."
Tennyson added that "networking of news and advertising with various Rust publications in Southeast Missouri, along with access to the company's state-of-the-art production methods, are other pluses for the relationship."
Tennyson, along with his wife, Sandra, acquired the Village News in 1983 after acquiring the Steele, Mo., Enterprise; the Enterprise had been owned and operated by his parents, R.C. and Robbie Sue Tennyson, since 1954. Tennyson added Sundays to the Village News publication schedule in 1991.
The Citizen-Journal, which has an office in Osceola, was launched in 1986.
The printing operation, which includes a five-unit Goss Suburban Web Press, along with sheet-fed printing and mailing facilities, is located at the company's principal offices at 325 West Main in Blytheville. Plans are under way to move to new facilities in 1994, according to Tennyson.
Rust noted that the transaction represents a coming home of sorts for him. Members of the Rust family are native Arkansans; his father and many relatives resided near Rector.
Rust first became involved in the publishing industry in 1967 when he acquired a small weekly newspaper in Cape Girardeau. He purchased his first daily newspaper 12 years ago. Today, Rust Communications comprises four Southeast Missouri daily newspapers (the Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, the Dexter Statesman, the Daily Democrat in Kennett and the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian), three weeklies, four free publications, numerous specialty publications and printing companies. Rust is the principal owner; the group is actively seeking other media acquisitions in the mid-United States.
While Rust Communications newspapers will continue to operate independently, they participate in a regional news and advertising network, including a daily newspaper in Sikeston.
Rust Communications, through its affiliates and network arrangements, now offers weekly distribution of 124,000 and paid daily circulation of more than 55,000.
The Steele Enterprise, a companion publication of Tennyson Publishing, is not part of the purchase agreement.
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