A DECADE OF SERVICE

It was 10 short years ago this week that Gary Rust purchased the Southeast Missourian from the Canadian-based Thomson Newspaper chain.

At the time of the sale, Rust promised to provide Cape Girardeau and the region one of the finest daily newspapers in the country in terms of news, market penetration and value for both readers and advertisers. It is a promise the staff and ownership have worked hard to deliver.

The Bulletin-Journal newspaper, a thrice-weekly free publication, was merged with the six-day-a-week Southeast Missourian in July 1986. Staffs that were once fierce competitors learned to work together. What emerged was a publication that featured the best that both had to offer.

The newspaper has delivered on its promises of a better product -- not only more appealing to the eye with daily color, but more diverse with stepped up local content. In June 1990, the newspaper switched to a morning publication as a way to reach more readers. It added a Saturday edition in October 1993, again offering readers more bang for their buck.

What will the next decade bring? There likely will be more technological advances as the Missourian looks to a computer online product and better ways to serve customers. But the newspaper will never forget its first task: serving you, the public, with honest, fair, thorough and accurate local and regional news coverage. That is the Rust tradition.