SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN MARKS 95 YEARS

Today, the Southeast Missourian marks its 95th birthday.

Think of it -- 1904. The same year of the St. Louis World's Fair. In fact, founders Fred and George Naeter traveled to Cape Girardeau on a steamer from the fair and discovered the local newspaper had gone out of business. So they started the newspaper.

At the time, the brothers had been working at separate newspapers in the St. Louis area. A third brother, Harry Naeter, joined the firm shortly after its inception.

For 95 years, the newspaper has served Cape Girardeau and the region, recording the community's achievements and shortcomings, its joys and its sorrows.

On Oct. 3, 1904, this newspaper issued its first edition -- a 2-cent, four-page, broadsheet that shifted the normal focus of a small-town newspaper from the national scene to the local level. Its pages emphasized home-owned products and businesses, and promised its advertisers that the publication would soon "be placed in every home in Cape Girardeau."

It bore the name The Daily Republican until 1918, when it was renamed The Southeast Missourian.

The Naeter family owned the newspaper until 1977, when it was sold to Thomson Newspaper. It became a family-owned company once again when it was purchased by Gary Rust in 1986.

After years of publishing an evening edition, The Missourian became a morning newspaper in 1990. In 1993, it became a true daily, when it added a Saturday edition, publishing seven days a week.

Throughout its history, the newspaper has continued to live up to the promise it made its readers in its first edition 95 years ago today:

"When you pick up The Republican, note its NEWS columns -- note the several columns of late telegraph NEWS, the columns of local and personal NEWS and the columns of editorial matter on the second page. Then read the sparkling ads of the local merchants -- there's good, timely news in all of them, too."