LA CROSSE — After a 41-year career with Lee Enterprises newspapers, La Crosse Tribune editor Rusty Cunningham will retire Sept. 30, the newspaper announced Wednesday.
Cunningham said in the announcement that he looks forward to more time to spend with family and more opportunities to golf, though he will miss “being in the know” and working with the staff at the Tribune.
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The fourth consecutive generation of his family in journalism, Cunningham grew up with a passion for newspapers. After graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he started his career with newspapers in Binghamton, N.Y., and Omaha, Neb., before joining Lee Enterprises in March 1979 at the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa.
In August 1997, Cunningham became editor of the Tribune. He was named publisher of the Capital Newspapers-Portage division in 2002 and returned to La Crosse as publisher of the Tribune in 2004. He moved back to the editor’s position in 2015 and has remained in the role since.
Under Cunningham’s leadership, the Tribune has won numerous WNA Better Newspaper Contest awards over the years, including several for General Excellence. The River Valley Newspaper Group, which includes the Tribune, also was awarded the 2011 Enterprise of the Year Award by Lee Enterprises.
