William Schroeder produced his first newspaper when he was 12, a four-pager complete with cartoons for his grade school. He went on to start the Lakeland Media group and serve as editor and publisher of a group of 12 Lake County newspapers.
For nearly 50 years, until his retirement in 2005, he was never far from community journalism.
“He wanted it to be grass-roots journalism,” said his daughter Jill McDermott. “He wanted to report on pancake breakfasts and honor rolls, school board meetings and local economic news.”
Mr. Schroeder did that in newspapers from the Antioch News Reporter to the Waukegan Times.
“We tried to tailor-make each paper to reflect its community and its personality,” McDermott said.
Mr. Schroeder, 82, died of natural causes Saturday, Dec. 17, in Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, according to his son Robert. He had lived on Long Lake in unincorporated Ingleside for more than 50 years.
Mr. Schroeder grew up on a farm in Half Day and enjoyed farm life, but loved writing and was drawn to journalism. After putting out his grade school paper, he became editor of the newspaper at Libertyville High School.
He worked on The Daily Illini while attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also worked as a sports editor for the Champaign-Urbana Courier. After getting his degree, he joined the Army, where he edited a weekly newspaper at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Returning to Lake County after his service, he landed a job with the Waukegan News-Sun as a general assignment reporter.
Three years later, he persuaded his father, then business manager of a Libertyville paper, to sell the family farm to buy some newspapers.
“They thought they were buying two papers — the Grayslake Times and the Round Lake News — but they got the Fox Lake Press also,” said his son.
That was in 1956, and those three papers were the start of what was then Lakeland Publishers. Mr. Schroeder ran news operations, and his father handled the business side.
The papers gave Mr. Schroeder a vantage point from which to observe the rapid growth of Lake County communities. From the beginning, Mr. Schroeder focused on community journalism.
“He enjoyed playing a role in responsible growth,” his son said. “He had a great knowledge and perspective on the community.”
But sometimes that growth could get out of hand.
“He would write editorials on controlled growth,” his son said, adding that his father stressed careful use of resources and concerns for traffic and uncontrolled development.
His father’s knowledge and perspective on community issues informed his newspaper work, his son said, citing a time when Naval Station Great Lakes was on a list of possible base closings.
“He gave a lot of support to keep Great Lakes open,” his son said. “He realized the impact of closing could have devastated North Chicago and had a major impact on Lake County. He felt he played a role in creating awareness.”
Mr. Schroeder’s journalism won him and his papers a number of awards, including the Illinois Press Association’s Best in State newspaper award three times.
“He was the writer in the family,” said his son. “He ran the news operation, and he loved the newspaper business.”
Lakeland Media was sold in 2005 to Shaw Media. The papers have been combined under one masthead as the Lake County Journal. McDermott said individual communities still have their own pages in that paper.
Mr. Schroeder is also survived by his wife, Nancy; another daughter, Karen Miller; another son, William; a brother, Robert; and eight grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday in Ringa Funeral Home, 122 S. Milwaukee Ave., Lake Villa. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in the funeral home.
