Strong newspaper builds a community

I was a member of the Cape Girardeau business community for more than 15 years. I bought half of Riverside Lumber Co. and turned it into a home center-type business. It was very successful.

My partner, Bill Kies, died one or two years later. I took over for him and developed the Riverside Home Centers in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston and Ste. Genevieve.

During that period we utilized the newspaper for advertising.

The Southeast Missourian was a Canadian-owned company at the time. It was a typical small-town newspaper. There was no vim or vigor. Then Gary Rust came on the scene with a smaller paper, the Bulletin Journal. He worked hard, up early in the morning, writing articles. And he went after the Missourian's advertising customers.

At that time, Riverside was one of the major advertisers. Rust pushed me by arranging for college students to call randomly in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois asking which paper people preferred reading, the Southeast Missourian or the Bulletin Journal. I paid the students. To my surprise, the Bulletin Journal was the preference. We switched our advertising. Others did as well.

The rest is history. The Bulletin Journal grew and took over the Southeast Missourian. We have seen the tremendous growth, development and improvements since.

Rust built his crew of family and many other key personnel. Rust Communications has grown into an outstanding media operation with more than 50 publications in the Midwest. Who knows how far they can go with their outstanding personnel? They've made the success that had eluded many of the major media in markets such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

One of the major improvements has been imaginative, colorful and effective advertising, which benefits the advertisers, the customers and the newspaper.

Examples include the Innovations 2009 progress-success issue, which dramatically illustrates the growth of the Cape Girardeau area business-wise and facility-wise. It lists dozens of companies, new and old, offering the products and services to the community. And customers go to them.

Other examples include the SE Live and Good Times sections. Notice how other sections have improved, such as the Automotive section. These new sections by Missourian personnel are effective, attracting advertisers and customers.

There is no question that effective media sustain and improve a community's health and growth.

Many sections of the country are not served with this type of media, which is one reason many communities are stagnant.

I tip my hat to this operation and the Rust family and all of the key personnel who make this such a successful operation. We in Cape Girardeau are fortunate to be served by this type of operation. In fact, I recently stopped taking the St. Louis paper. All of this makes me miss the action of today's business world.

Cliff Rudesill of Cape Girardeau is a retired businessman.