Jon K. Rust

When people talk about rural America, the conversation too often slips into shorthand — fewer people, fewer jobs, fewer opportunities. That story may fit a headline, but it doesn’t fit Southeast Missouri. Rural business here is not shrinking into irrelevance. It is adapting, investing, exporting and, in many cases, quietly outperforming expectations.

To make further savings, we are considering ending the special, standalone comics section entirely, publishing only those comics that normally appear in the Weekend Good Times section, as well as the daily comics that normally appear in the B section near Sports. As we make the final decision, we’d like to know: Which comics do you enjoy most? How important is the standalone comics section to your weekend newspaper?

Discover how Southeast Missouri’s leaders, innovators, and educators are shaping the region’s future, from advanced manufacturing to AI-driven entrepreneurship, in this forward-looking December issue of B Magazine.