Mark Schlueb revisited

After being laid off as county government reporter only 10 months after leaving his Daytona Beach News-Journal job in 2001 and bringing his family to Akron where he worked at the Beacon Journal, Mark Schlueb fired off an email to Knight-Ridder CEO Anthony Ridder that became a shot heard 'round the newspaper world. This and the Ann Hill letter are classics among Beacon Journal past, present and retired newsroom employees.

Today, Mark Schlueb is back in Florida working for the Orlando Sentinel. Schlueb won the Orlando Sentinel's annual award for excellence in investigative reporting. Associate managing editor/projects Bob Shaw said: "Mark won primarily for a piece he did about city council and the mayor blatantly violating the spirit of the state's public meetings law. ...Mark found more than 200 instances over six years of essentially private meetings."

As for his email to Ridder, Schlueb said, "I don't understand why a letter I dashed off in 20 minutes has received such attention. I don't think anyone would pay any attention to an autoworker who wrote a nasty letter to his boss, and I'm not sure why this is different.

"The letter started showing up the first week of my new job. An AME here (at the Orlando Sentinel) -- another K-R expatriate -- received it, with a note asking if he'd ever heard of me. 'Heard of him? I just hired him!' It was a tad tense for a little while, as my new co-workers tried to gauge my sanity. But everyone here has been very supportive.”

For the record, Schlueb never got a reply from Ridder.

For those who want to offer him belated attaboys, Mark Schlueb can be reached at mschlueb@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5417.

The letter that a lot of us probably wished we had written:

Dear Mr. Ridder,

I wanted to write and tell you what a fine time I've had working for the Akron Beacon Journal. (That's a newspaper your company owns in Northeast Ohio.) I've only worked here since last June, but I've had an opportunity to uncover plenty of great stories, and put them into what I consider the best newspaper in Ohio. (Ohio is a state in the Midwest.) All the while, I've been able to work with the most talented group of writers and reporters with whom I've ever had the privilege to associate. It's been very inspiring -- in fact, my desk is only about 20 feet from John S. Knight's old typewriter, which is now kept behind glass.

Of course, you're cutting these fine people off at the knees, you asshole. How do you expect the dedicated and loyal reporters at the Beacon Journal to keep putting out a quality paper when you're eliminating nearly a quarter of the reporting staff? You faceless corporate hacks take a break from your golf game long enough to scream that circulation must stay up, but then you order arbitrary budget cuts that force the elimination of entire sections of the Sunday paper. And when that's not enough, you order layoffs that eliminate the very employees who have helped keep circulation from falling. Seriously, the kid who changes the oil in my car could run Knight Ridder with more foresight than you.

I brought my wife and two children to Akron -- a thousand miles from our native Florida, where I had a secure job and other offers -- to work at the Beacon Journal. The editors here were able to attract me with the excellent reputation they and John S. Knight had built over a period of decades. In just a few months, you've managed to wreck everything they built. How many top-notch reporters will choose to move to Akron, if they would face the prospect of working at an understaffed, demoralized newspaper?

Maybe I should have seen this coming. After all, it wasn't that long ago that Knight Ridder budget cuts gutted the Miami Herald. Remember what happened then? There was a mass exodus of talented reporters, and the Herald is a shadow of its former self.
Don't worry about me; I'll land on my feet. I don't regret coming here, even though I've been laid off now. In fact, my only regret is that you haven't come to visit the Beacon Journal. I would have loved to piss on your shoes.

—Mark Schlueb, former staff writer, Akron Beacon Journal