Bulldog Edition
It's the perfect excuse to ask questions.
It's an avenue to make a career out of learning about your community.
It's a pathway to having an impact on neighbors' lives and making changes in the world around you.
To Mark Mann, journalism isn't a job. It's a lifestyle that began in his boyhood, when his parents owned the community, weekly newspaper. Mann, even before his age hit double digits, helped catch copies of the Scott County Journal as they rolled off the sheet-fed press.
Through the years, everything in journalism from the actual printing to the nature of headlines and deadlines has evolved, advanced, changed.
And now Mann, managing editor at the Butler Eagle for more than 24 years, is changing too.
He retired Thursday.
“Mark has been the rock of the Eagle newsroom for the past 25 years,” said Ron Vodenichar, Butler Eagle general manager and co-publisher.
“His calm, steady demeanor was ideal for handling the news department in relation to the community but also to balance the aggressiveness that was often coming from my office. He was a gentleman as well as a true journalist every day that he was here.”
He added, “Mark and (his wife) Ruth (Purcell) have been a blessing and a true asset to Butler from their very first days in Butler. We thank them and wish all the best for them going forward.”
By the time Mann moved his family to Butler to lead the Eagle newsroom in the summer of 1992, he already had learned the media ropes in his home state of Indiana.
The first of his newspaper experiences was a stint as a teenager working for the Scott County Journal, circulation 5,000. Mann's parents, Wade and Ellen Mann, owned the paper until he was in high school, and it wasn't unusual for him to work when needed.
But his interest in history and government and learning pulled him to earn a college degree in a different field: teaching.
After earning a degree from Indiana University, Mann didn't immediately find a job in the classroom so he went back to his roots. His first job was as editor of a weekly newspaper, The Dunkirk News & Sun.
Those were the last of the hot metal typesetting days of the industry when pages were cast in lead. Each page weighed dozens of pounds.
Mann's role at that newspaper was different then too: He was the researcher, the writer, the photographer and the idea maker ... whatever was needed to get news to the 1,600 people who subscribed to that paper.
“It was on-the-job training,” he said.In the years that followed, Mann's career changed as swiftly as the newspaper industry. The News & Sun switched to an offset operation, and two years later Mann became a city reporter at a daily newspaper. Then he became managing editor at a different daily, an editor at another paper and ultimately the assistant managing editor at the Lafayette Journal & Courier, a daily with a 40,000 circulation.By then, already married with a son and daughter, Mann moved to Butler and became a staple at the paper and the community.His wife said, “The welcome we received when we came to Butler built our love of this community. Mark always felt that Butler is a good community and a nice place to live and work.”The couple lives in Center Township. Their children, Colin and Laura, are grown.Purcell said, “Mark grew up in the newspaper business. Current issues and publishing, that's in his blood.”Although he's taught writing at Butler County Community College and journalism classes at Slippery Rock University, Mann said he never regretted leaving the idea of teaching behind.“I like journalism,” he said. “You get to meet such a wide variety of people. You get to know the community and learn something new every day ... it's sort of like teaching in that you get to help readers understand their community.”During his more 24 years as the Eagle's managing editor, Mann had a role in a number of accomplishments and upgrades at the paper. He helped oversee the start up of the Sunday edition, was involved with several newsroom computer system upgrades, and helped start Butler County Business Matters, the Eagle's monthly business publication.Mann also helped the Eagle to become a full color newspaper on a daily basis and to be more involved with news coverage through social media.Also, the Eagle won a number of awards in regional and state newspaper contests under Mann's leadership.In the community, Mann was involved with the Boy Scouts at the troop and district levels. He was on the board of Leadership Butler County, the community advisory council of the Alcoa Foundation, and the Red Apple committee that annually selects top teachers in the county.
<br />On the professional level, Mann has been a member and chairman of the advisory board for the Communication Department at SRU. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors and was a former board member of that group.On a daily basis at the Eagle, Mann was responsible for selecting story topics, guiding reporters and helping form the nature of the paper, the news and ultimately the community itself.He kept his staff happy by buying doughnuts every Friday.Dave Heastings, a longtime co-worker, friend and city editor, said, “Mark was a remarkable leader of the newsroom. He could help a new reporter through the twists and turns of developing a story one day, and strengthen the story of a veteran reporter the next.“Mark was a leader who made those working for him better reporters and editors.”“Mark made the job fun,” said Donna Ungor Sybert, Eagle news editor. “In a fast-paced business, he always made time for people — the people he worked with and those he met along the way.”At the announcement of his retirement, Mann was honored by Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson with a key to the city and a proclamation declaring this past Thursday as “Mark Mann Day.”The proclamation noted a commitment to community by both the Eagle and Mann.The mayor said, “As Mark's former neighbor for many years, I have witnessed his exceptional dedication to work, family and community. With Mr. Mann's retirement, we celebrate his accomplishments.”
As for Mann's future plans, one only needs to look over his shoulder in his office to see it clearly: A photograph of Mann hiking near a glacier in Alaska hung on his office wall behind his desk.Hikes like that are on his agenda. As is bicycling, enjoying the outdoors and frequent trips to Denver and Long Island, N.Y., where his children live.Still, Mann's time on deadline isn't exactly over.Only now, the deadline won't be quite so stressful as at the newspaper and will likely tick down on Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park.Four years ago, when he bought his 23-foot sailboat, he named it “Deadline.”
