A small town newspaper in Tennessee is back in familiar hands this month after a deal between Paxton Media Group and Rust Communications.

Despite having loved serving the communities in Dyersburg, Tennessee (pictured) and Brazil, Greencastle and Greene County, Indiana, Rust president Jon Rust says transitioning them to Paxton “made sense with their other properties”.

Paxton – which sold the Dyersburg State-Gazette to Cape Girardeau, Missouri-based Rust Communications in 2000 – is buying it back, along with Indiana’s Greencastle Banner Graphic, Brazil Times, and Greene County Daily World.

Rust bought the Banner Graphic in 1999, the Brazil Times in 2001, and former Linton Daily Citizen and Bloomfield Evening World in 2003, merging them to become the Daily World in 2005.

Rust says it is vital that newspapers and local news organisations prosper for the good of the public and for American democracy. “Rust will continue to focus on our other markets, in five states, on our mission of being intensely-focused on making our communities better through responsible journalism and community engagement.”

Family-owned Paxton Media Group, based in Paducah, Kentucky, was founded in 1896 and is led by fifth-generation president and chief executive Jamie Paxton.

The group publishes nearly 120 community newspapers in the Southeast and Midwest, as well as related websites, and also operates NBC affiliated television station WPSD-TV.

The Rust titles will join Paxton’s existing stable of eight titles in southern Indiana, and 11 in Tennessee. Dirks, Van Essen & April is representing Rust in the transaction, terms of which were not disclosed.

Rust Communications continues to own and operate newspapers in Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Kansas and Idaho.