The Southeast Missourian covers a metro area anchored by Cape Girardeau, which is a thriving community with three hospitals, a university and a bustling downtown district on the riverfront of the Mighty Mississippi. In addition to its core newspaper products, Rust Communications operates a digital agency, events division and magazine operation in Cape Girardeau. In 2019, The Southeast Missourian was one of 10 newspapers in North America selected by Google, Local Media Association and FTI Consulting for an accelerated project on digital subscriptions. It has previously been involved with Google on three other cutting edge projects, as well as being a technology testing ground for the Associated Press.