Too Good to Refuse   

San Antonio Express-News Editor and Senior Vice President Robert Rivard decides he'll stay put at his 237,000-circulation paper.

San Antonio Express-News Editor and Senior Vice President Robert Rivard decides he'll stay put at his 237,000-circulation paper, declining the executive editor post at the 356,000-circulation Miami Herald . Why? How about money from parent Hearst in the area of seven figures to add 25 new editorial positions (about a 10 percent increase in staff), create new bureaus and boost salaries? Rivard says he "loved everything about Miami," but the investment by Hearst was something he "couldn't walk away from." Express-News Publisher Larry Walker says, "The things that Bob outlined that were important to him, we've been discussing for several years." The investment "absolutely" would've happened, though over a longer period of time, he adds, calling Rivard's Miami offer "a call to action" for Hearst. Hearst, which acquired the Texas paper in 1993 from Rupert Murdoch , shuttering its own San Antonio Light , has been putting much-needed money into the Express-News, says Rivard. But, he adds, this commitment makes it possible to take the paper to a new level. As for Rivard's personal incentive not to move, the editor says: "It really wasn't about doing something for me.... I thought I had taken the paper as far as I could take it...with the resources I had." The Herald's top job has been vacant since Douglas C. Clifton left in May to assume the editorship of Cleveland's Plain Dealer .