RUST TURNS NEWSPAPER REINS OVER TO SONS

The media landscape in Southeast Missouri is changing as Gary W. Rust retires from the day-to-day operations of Rust Communications, owner of the Southeast Missourian. Jon K. Rust and Rex D. Rust, two of his sons, were named co-presidents at a company meeting Thursday.

Gary Rust will continue to be active as chairman of the Rust Communications board, which has ownership interests in more than 40 newspapers in seven states. An airplane pilot, Rust plans to spend more time visiting individual newspapers.

"Our father has always been a hero to us and to many others in the newspaper industry," said Jon Rust. "From humble origins in the newspaper business, he built a media group that ranks as one of the most dynamic in the nation. Much of the credit also belongs to his management team, which includes chief operating officer Wally Lage and chief financial officer Dick Caldwell here in Cape Girardeau. Rex and I look forward to carrying the legacy of community service, fair and accurate reporting and a powerful advertising vehicle into a new generation."

Rex Rust added: "Dad has built a great business over the past 30 years, and I am excited to join my brother and our strong management team in continuing its growth into the future. We do not expect, nor want, Dad to retire from the business as a whole. But this announcement marks a transition for the community to bring problems, recommendations and ideas directly to Jon, me and our local management.

Transition has begun

"The internal transition has already begun," he said.

In his new role as chairman, Gary Rust will focus on corporate goals, including mergers and acquisitions. In January, Rust Communications acquired two daily newspapers and a group of weeklies, all strategically located near other holdings of the company. The additional newspapers brought Rust's total holdings to 13 dailies, 33 weeklies, 10 shoppers and 12 separate printing operations. The company plans to continue growth by acquisition.

"I have always believed strongly in quality local news and local management, and many newspaper families have decided to sell to us because this thinking also reflects their values," Gary Rust said. "Too often, large newspaper chains are driven by short-term profit goals. As a result they cut news staff and the space available for news in the paper. But to me, newspapers are not only a business, they are an integral partner in a free, democratic society.

"Because they can provide perspective on current events in more in-depth form, they can help combat demagoguery and sensationalism."

The transition of day-to-day operational management to Jon Rust, 33, and Rex Rust, 31, began formally last July, when the two returned to Cape Girardeau as executive vice presidents.

At the time, Gary Rust announced: "Attracting these two executives with their broad experiences in media and finance should send a signal to both the community and the larger media industry. This company is poised for growth."

Sons' background

Jon Rust worked with the company from 1991 to 1997 in various positions at the Southeast Missourian, including editorial-page editor and assistant to the publisher. In 1995, he founded the Dyersburg News in Dyersburg, Tenn., and served as publisher of four Rust newspapers in Tennessee and Missouri. He earned his master's degree from Harvard Business School in 1999, where he was president of the Leadership and Ethics Forum, and spent an additional year in Cambridge as a Harvard research fellow and media consultant. He was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina.

Rex D. Rust, a 1992 Harvard graduate, spent two years on Wall Street and six years in private-equity management in Chicago and Virginia prior to returning to Missouri to join the family company. In private equity, he was responsible for acquisitions which totaled more than $350 million. On Wall Street, he worked with some of the largest mergers and acquisitions in U.S. history at the time, including Federated Department Stores' acquisition of R.H. Macy & Co., and the Continental Airlines sale to Texas Air Partners.

Rex Rust's focus in the company is on corporate management, finance and acquisition issues. Jon Rust's focus is on network technology, operational management, training, and news and editorial issues.

"Over the past eight months, I've seen firsthand the strengths Jon and Rex bring to the company," Gary Rust said. "Without Rex's negotiating skills and Jon's early presence in the markets, we would not have been able to make the latest acquisition. I am confident their leadership will continue the company's commitment to community, advertisers, employees and shareholders."

Publisher's perspective

Wally Lage, chief operating officer of Rust Communications and publisher of the company's flagship Southeast Missourian, provided more perspective on the changes.

"I'm excited about the future," Lage said. "I have worked with other newspaper companies in my career, and this is one of the strongest management teams in the business today. Somehow, I don't think Gary is ever going to be far from the operations, however. He cares passionately about this town and his newspapers."

As publisher of the Southeast Missourian, Lage remains the company's point man in Cape Girardeau.

"Wally's done an excellent job stewarding this newspaper since he became publisher in 1993, and that won't change," Rex Rust said. "Jon and I will be involved as the final decision point on networkwide issues."

Gary Rust began in the newspaper business in the early 1960s when he purchased a 1,500-circulation weekly newspaper in Cape Girardeau. After nearly two decades of heavy competition, in 1986 he acquired the Southeast Missourian daily in Cape Girardeau from Thomson Newspapers, one of the largest newspaper groups in the world at the time. He added two more dailies by the end of that decade and then 10 dailies in the next 10 years.

Total non-duplicated circulation of his newspapers surpassed 300,000 homes and more than 800,000 readers with the most recent acquisition.

Rust is the recipient of some of the nation's most prestigious publisher awards. He continues to serve on several newspaper industry boards. He is a former state representative from Cape Girardeau and was a furniture retailer before he started buying newspapers.

He and his wife, Wendy, will celebrate their 46th wedding anniversary in 2001. Their other children are Penny Terry of Boone, N.C.; Gary Rust II of Osaka, Japan; Holly Payne of suburban Chicago; and Wynn Rust of Charlotte, N.C. Gary and Wendy Rust also have 11 grandchildren.