Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski shared a Facebook post to his personal page on May 9 with a stack of May 5 editions of The Portager burned in a fire pit.

“It starts out like paper…but burns more like a RAGGG! Try it and let me know…what you think!?!?” Zuchowski wrote in his post.

Zuchowski said the post comes as an impractical joke to get the local newspaper‘s attention after a conflicted relationship with the media outlet.

This relationship between The Portager and Zuchowski dates back to 2020 during his first term.

He felt offended by a tab on their website dedicated to his office, which he said consisted of negative coverage of both him and his office.

The Portager publisher Ben Wolford said his staff has sought out Zuchowski for interview requests to keep their coverage fair, but these requests have been declined.

“It was more of just getting their attention and knowing it was going to get a reaction from them,” Zuchowski said.

Wolford did not immediately notice the post and was alerted by others, prompting a post on their Facebook page on May 21.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, this is bad, you know this is inflammatory,’” said Wolford. “‘This could rile up people who really hate the press … this is going to make my job and my reporters’ jobs a lot harder.’”

Over two weeks later, Zuchowski burned an additional stack of The Portager in a  Facebook post on May 24.

“He’s obviously trying to send a message that The Portager is worth burning, and he’s sending that message with photos of the paper,” Wolford said. “The stuff that is on the paper is cool, local stuff that people are doing … so if that’s what he wants to burn, that’s his free speech.”

The Portager issued its final response on May 26, asking the sheriff to stop grabbing stacks to set them ablaze.

Zuchowski said his action of burning nine copies of The Portager was not hateful, and it led to the outlet gaining subscribers.

Wolford said the paper gained more than 30 paid subscribers due to the increased media attention around the outlet.

In an interview with the Akron Beacon Journal, Wolford said if given the chance to see the sheriff, he would thank him for the renewed interest in local media.

“I am not trying to start a burning campaign, or I am not out here telling people to burn [The Portager],” Zuchowski said.  “If they want to burn it, that’s fine, they can do what they want.” 

While Wolford never spoke to the sheriff himself, he hopes for open dialogue with Zuchowski and the chance to speak with him in the future.

“If he had [legitimate concerns about our reporting], he knows how to reach me and we will correct it or fix it,” Wolford said.

Zuchowski has not entirely abandoned the press, as he plans to start his “media relations room,” meant to put out information and tutorials from the sheriff’s office, which is expected to start up in June. 

He hopes the new media relations room will “get our side of the story out there.”

Nikki Gasiewski is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].