Steve Rose returns as publisher of Sun Newspapers

Kansas City Star

March 21, 2008

It's back to the future for Sun Newspapers, which is getting its sixth publisher in 10 years.

The new publisher and chief executive is former publisher Steve Rose, 60, whose father founded the suburban newspaper chain in 1950.

News-Press & Gazette Co. of St. Joseph, which acquired Sun Newspapers more than three years ago, made the announcement Friday morning to Sun employees, some of whom are being laid off as part of a companywide reorganization.

At least a dozen of the Sun's 75 to 80 employees will lose their jobs, said David Bradley Jr., head of News-Press & Gazette. Those cuts include positions in the editorial, ad production and tele-sales departments, he said.

Bradley said there were no job cuts at other News-Press & Gazette operations, 'but we're going to keep looking at it, just like anybody.'

Meanwhile, other changes at Sun include the hiring of David Small, Rose's nephew, as co-publisher and chief operating officer. Small, 39, who was Sun's advertising director from 1997 to 1999, most recently was president of Builders Publishing Co. in Overland Park.

'We're a family-owned operation,' Bradley said. 'We're happy to be associated with this family that is so well-known in Johnson County and built the operation for many years. We think they'll do a great job.'

Neither Rose nor Small will have an ownership interest in Sun, whose parent company, Sun Publications, the Rose family sold in 1998.

News-Press & Gazette, which owns the daily St. Joseph News-Press and other media properties, acquired Sun Newspapers in late 2005 from American Community Newspapers LLC of Eden Prairie, Minn.

Rose said in a written statement Friday: 'I believe the owners are focused on stability and growth, and we hope to achieve that. It is a tough economy, but our publications serve a community that does not tend to have bubbles and bursts. We just want to concentrate on serving our readers and advertisers with a stronger pulse on the communities we serve.'

Besides the Johnson County Sun weekly newspapers, Sun Newspapers owns the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, Kansas City Nursing News, St. Louis Nursing News and Metromedia, which puts out local chamber of commerce directories and other publications.

Rose, who will continue to write his front-page column for Sun's newspapers, replaces Kraig Cawley, a former executive at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, as Sun's publisher. Cawley's tenure was short-lived; he joined Sun only last summer.

Cawley could not be reached for comment.

Rose's portfolio as publisher will not include the Northland and Miami County newspapers, which were folded into Sun after News-Press & Gazette bought the company. Those publications will be managed out of St. Joseph.

Sun Newspapers traces its roots to The Prairie Scout, a gossipy mimeographed biweekly founded by Rose's father, Stan Rose, in 1950 that catered to Prairie Village residents. The Prairie Scout spawned the Sun newspapers in 1965.

Steve Rose took over the operation after his father died in 1997. Less than two years later, he sold it to Lionheart Newspapers of Plano, Texas, for nearly $13 million. Lionheart eventually moved the company's headquarters to Eden Prairie, Minn., and changed its name to American Community Newspapers.

In 2004, a group led by Spire Capital Partners, Wachovia Capital Partners and American Community Newspapers bought the company for $85 million. News-Press & Gazette bought it the following year for an undisclosed price.

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