RUST COMMUNICATIONS BUYS TENNESSEE PAPER

Concord Publishing House Inc. of Cape Girardeau has acquired the Dyer County Tennessean.

Vyron and Cynthia Mitchell, who have owned the paper since 1981, announced the sale of the weekly newspaper this week.

The transaction marked only the fourth time in its 108-year history that the Dyer County Tennessean has changed ownership.

The announcement marks the second week in a row that Concord Publishing House has announced an acquisition. Last week, the Cape Girardeau-headquartered company announced that it had purchased the Portageville Missourian-News in New Madrid County.

Concord Publishing House is part of Rust Communications, the largest outstate newspaper publishing company in Missouri which includes five daily newspapers and more than a dozen weeklies in Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.

The Southeast Missourian of Cape Girardeau is the company's flagship newspaper. Concord Printing Services in Cape Girardeau is an affiliate.

The company also owns the Dyersburg (Tenn.) News, a weekly newspaper. Other newspapers in the group include weeklies at Marble Hill, Malden, Caruthersville, Advance, Bloomfield, Jackson, Chaffee, Steele, Doniphan, Portageville, and Osceola, Ark., and dailies at Cape Girardeau, Dexter, Poplar Bluff, Kennett and Blytheville, Ark.

The Tennessean newspaper is one of the oldest businesses in Dyer County and was founded in 1888 by W.W. Glass. It was operated by second owners Quintard and Ann Glass until 1966, when it was sold to William Anderson, who sold it to the Mitchells in 1981.

The newspaper will be under the direction of Jon Rust, publisher and part-owner of the Dyersburg News. Rust lives in Dyersburg.

"We have tried to give our readers a local, down-home newspaper over the years," said Mitchell. "We're confident that readers of the Tennessean will continue to receive that tradition as well as many improvements to the newspaper."

The Mitchells combine for 67 years experience in the newspaper business. Vyron Mitchell joined the family-owned business at Fulton, Ky. 43 years ago, and Cynthia Mitchell has been involved in newspaper work 24 years.

The two operated and managed newspapers in Barnsdale, Okla., St. Cloud and Wildwood, Fla. before purchasing the Tennessean.

"The sale of the newspaper was a difficult decision for us," said Mitchell. "We're pleased that Rust Communications made the purchase. The company has a history of publishing community newspapers and Dyer County residents have seen what an excellent job it has done with the Dyersburg News."

The Tennessean has been printed the past two years at the Dunklin Democrat, the Kennett, Mo., newspaper owned by the Rust group.

The Tennessean will retain its present staff, including columns by Alvin Rose, LaVale Mill and David Willis. Following a brief vacation, Mitchell will also return with his column, "The Back Page."