Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Deputy Managing Editor for Features Jack Schnedler will retire on Aug. 12 along with his wife, HomeStyle Editor Marcia Schnedler. But in an e-mail to the Democrat-Gazette newsroom with the subject line “The Unvarnished Truth,” Schnedler, 68, portrayed his departure as forced retirement. He said Managing Editor David Bailey and Editor Griffin Smith told him in June that he’d no longer be working for the paper.
“It was my distinct impression that I’d been laid off,” Schnedler wrote. “Griffin has since told me that I misunderstood the situation. I was not laid off, he said, and I shouldn’t take it personally. Rather, my position was being eliminated. I told him that seemed a distinction without a difference.”
Schnedler’s retirement comes just over one month after two columnists, Jay Grelen and Linda Caillouet, were moved to the copy desk and features department, respectively. Deputy Editor Frank Fellone said to his knowledge, “we have no other serious or major changes on the horizon.”
Schnedler’s day-to-day duties will be absorbed by others on staff, Fellone said.