Isaiah Buse sits in the publisher's office of the Houston Herald, a weekly paper that's been around since 1878, making it the oldest continuing business in Texas County.
Calm voices occasionally waft across the office from the police scanner. The window offers a view of small-town America, in the form of Grand Avenue.
Down the block is the pharmacy that for generations was owned by the Forbes family, which has Houston roots back to the 19th century. It's a Walgreens now.
Buse wears a black Adidas shirt. He is lanky and looks fit. He is a former prep and small-college athlete. He grew up in Houston, Missouri, a rural city of 2,100 people.
Buse worked at the Herald in high school. During his senior year, he covered the school board for the paper.
The reason he happens to be in the publisher's office — sitting in the publisher's chair — is because he is the publisher. Buse bought the Herald May 1. He was 20 years old.
Buse is only the fourth Houston Herald owner since 1900. He got a taste of newspaper life in high school and through remote work he did for the Herald while at college.
“I just enjoyed this world,” he says. “I enjoy that it's not the same thing every day. I feel like I'm someone that needs challenge. In school, I would just get really bored. It's not fun to show up and do the same thing every day.”
Buse is smart enough to get a near-perfect score on the ACT. He is smart enough to be awarded a four-year, free-ride scholarship to William Woods University in Fulton. The Amy Shelton McNutt scholarship goes to just one student every year. The recipient must have shown academic achievement and exhibited character.
We'll get to character later.
‘You're going to need both confidence and humility'
Travis Tamerius is chaplain at William Woods and directs the school's Center for Ethics and Global Studies.
“I would say Isaiah is wise beyond his years,” Tamerius says.
Tamerius describes Buse as inquisitive and thoughtful.
“You can always tell when you have a different kind of student — it's where the learning extends beyond the syllabus and beyond the classroom, and he wants to stay and extend the conversation.”
Tamerius and Buse have talked since Buse bought the newspaper.
“I think youth oftentimes comes bundled up with energy, and that can work in his favor,” Tamerius says. “But I also told him, ‘You have to play the long game. A good leader is a good listener, and you're going to need both confidence and humility.'”
At William Woods, Buse switched majors from communications to business.
“I guess the thought was either I'll end up being a financial analyst or an accountant, or if I do end up wanting to come back and run the newspaper,” Buse says, “I'll have the business savvy on top of the experience of being here at the paper now.”
Bought paper, got married, bought a house
Some might ask: If Buse is so smart, why did he buy a newspaper?
The national narrative is that newspapers are dying, but that certainly is not the case everywhere.
The Ozarks has several locally-owned weekly papers that do well. Some of the people who own papers are on the board of the Ozark Press Association.
A quest for lifelong learning drew Buse to journalism. He's not afraid of facing a blank computer screen following a Houston City Council meeting. He relishes the reality that no two front pages will ever be the same.
Buse respects the big picture legacy of telling the truth about his hometown while also heralding its victories and making it a better place to live because, after all, it's where he lives.
After buying the paper May 1, he married Danielle Walker May 28. They met years ago at Houston High. She works as a physical therapist assistant in Rolla.
Buse would not have bought the paper without her consent.
“She's been my support, my rock,” he says.
They just bought a home in Houston.
Former owner did not want to sell to chain
Buse purchased the Herald from Brad Gentry, Houston High Class of 1981, who acquired it in 1996.
The Herald has always had local ownership, says Gentry, 60, and that had to continue.
Gentry's life has been the Houston Herald. He worked at the paper in high school, before he could drive, and went on to study journalism at the University of Missouri.
Over Gentry's lifetime, the countless hours he spent at work, as well as thinking about work, would likely have destroyed any long-time personal commitments.
“I've tried relationships, and I just never could get it solved with the workload that I took on myself,” he says.
The paper was one of the first to have a website, which Gentry created in 2000. He worked weekends. He digitized the history of the paper. Yes, going back to 1878.
As a result, he has never married and has no children, which means he had no familial successors to take over the paper.
Gentry wanted to retire but did not want to sell to a newspaper chain.
“A chain-ownership situation would have been terrible for the community and the county,” Gentry says. “They cut it to the very bone. News becomes non-existent. You're left with a shell of the newspaper.
“I plan to live here in retirement. I just didn't want to have to face people at the grocery store or the restaurant and hear about what a horrible decision I made when transferring ownership of a paper that's been here since 1878,” he says.
Gentry did not want details of the sale, such as price, made public. Buse had provided those details, with the understanding that Gentry would have veto power.
Herald has always had community support
Gentry says Buse can do well financially in Houston. After all, Gentry has done well.
“The community has supported this publication and continues to do so,” Gentry says. “I think Isaiah will be able to help as we've pivoted to doing more things on digital during my tenure.
“He's smart, he's conscientious, and he will have the community's best interest at heart. And after being around here off and on for five years, it was pretty obvious that I couldn't do any better than him.”
The Houston Herald's numbers are healthy. About 4,100 people buy the paper each Thursday. Some 1,250 subscribe. The paper is printed by a contractor in Jefferson City.
A digital subscription is $3.25 a month; print $3.50 a month; and a digital/print package starts at $58.75 a year. The website averages 200,000 page views a month.
Buse has four or five full-time employees, which includes one reporter. That number does not include Gentry, who since the sale works three days a week for free.
Gentry says: “I told him I would be around as long as he needs me.”
One beauty of small newspapers is lack of competitors
No one else covers the city of Houston, Buse says.
“It's content you literally can't get elsewhere. Nobody's coming down here to Houston and covering Houston news. KY3 is not our competitor.”
Buse says printed newspapers nationally will pretty much cease to exist in 10 years.
“But there will always be a need for news,” he says.
Although the Houston Herald is a weekly, the website, which Buse has redesigned, updates daily.
It would be a difficult decision to end the print version of the Herald, he says.
Many Herald readers are older and prefer a printed paper. In addition, Houston is a rural area and internet service is not always assured.
“The paper is very important for democracy, for local news and the connection between local residents and their governments and schools and communities,” Buse says. “I don't want to be the one that takes that away.”
‘I'm excited for our town'
Jeff McNiell 44, was Herald editor 2006 to 2019, when he left to be a full-time minister.
It was difficult to depart the paper, McNiell says, because Gentry thought that he might be the next publisher.
McNiell feels a “sense of relief” that Gentry, who has given so much to the Herald and the city, found a successor and that it's Buse.
“The Herald is going to have local ownership from a young man who's going to care about the people, who's going to live in the community he serves. I'm excited for our town,” McNiell says.
McNiell first heard of Buse while covering Houston High School sports. Buse played basketball and tennis for the Tigers.
Later, Buse attended a youth group McNiell led as youth pastor at Faith Fellowship church in Houston.
“We had a lot of discussions, just about life and faith,” McNiell says.
“Isaiah is a self starter and a self motivator. He sees something before it comes to fruition.
“He's got the financial mind to be able to see how to maneuver all the hurdles that are in the way of keeping a weekly newspaper not only alive, but vibrant.”
Experienced racism, but not often
Texas County's population is 92.5 percent white. Buse is of mixed race. His mother is white and his father is Black. His stepfather, who came into Buse's life at age 2, is white.
Buse has experienced racism in Houston, but not often.
“Houston is small enough that most of the people know you. If I walk out on the street, I'm going to see eight people that I know and two of them are going to hug me.
“I don't think it affects anything. I think it might be harder for someone who was completely an outsider — who didn't grow up here and graduate here.”
When Buse stepped outside to have his photo taken, one driver honked and waved at him.
He quickly expresses his gratitude
In talking to Buse, the “character” he displayed at William Woods University comes into sharp focus.
Buse says he is grateful to his wife and his mentors, who include Tamerius, Gentry and McNiell.
During the interview, Buse works back to Gentry, fearing he might have portrayed him only as the guy from whom he bought the paper.
“I love Brad; I appreciate everything he's done,” Buse says. “We're close friends.”
Buse also talks about the unflagging support of his parents. He considers his stepfather his father. He is an engineer.
“He drove an hour every day to work,” Buse says. “He did engineering that wasn't available here. He would drive an hour there and an hour back and then play basketball or catch every night.”
His mother was a teacher who recently obtained a master's degree. She once taught Danielle — Isaiah's wife — in third grade in Houston.
“My parents are the foundation to my life and they have afforded me opportunities I just otherwise wouldn't have. I wouldn't say we were well off. We just lived in an OK house. We weren't poor, but we weren't rich.
“My mom would do anything for us. She made sure that we had opportunities.”
He was asked if his parents supported his decision to buy the paper.
“I could tell them I was going to sell candy on the corner and they would support me.”
He is crying when he says this because part of character is gratitude.
‘Nothing else ever felt like it did here at the Herald'
Look close enough and there is always news, he says, even in small towns.
“There's a lot of nothing going around on in a small town,” Buse says. “But if you actually really look close, there's a lot of something.”
No one knows what the future holds, especially in the world of newspapers, and Buse has not forever closed the door on other career options, such as finance or real estate.
“What it comes down to — and what it's always come down to, to me — is that I could have succeeded in an office and I still could if I wanted to 15 years from now, 20 years from now. I could be an accountant, or a financial analyst. I still have an active real estate license.
“But nothing else ever felt like it did here at the Herald.
“Everyone's purpose in life is to move the world a millionth of an inch. I wasn't the first person to say that. But this was the place where I could move the world a millionth of an inch.”
His hometown is where Buse wants to move the world a little bit. When the door to the publisher's office opened, it did not matter he was only 20. He says he walked in because he did want to always wonder: Should I have listened to my heart?
“The saying goes: if you don't like the price of success, wait till you get the bill for regret.”
