Schermer entered general management in 1958 at the Star Courier in Kewanee, Illinois. While in Kewanee, the Star Courier received awards from the Illinois Daily Press Association and the Inland Press Association for community service and local community reporting. He moved to Missoula, Montana in 1959 where he became publisher of the Missoulian. This is the town in the book: A River Runs Through It. While in Missoula, Schermer was deeply involved in community and state affairs. The newspaper played a leading role in the passage of air and water pollution regulations for the State of Montana, and the creation of the Great Bear Wilderness Area, the Scapegoat Wilderness Area, which bordered the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, bringing the total of the three to. The Missoulian was instrumental in restoring the Clark Fork of the Columbia River from a polluted, sterile river to a blue ribbon trout stream today. The paper also played a key role in the creation of a constitutional convention that produced a new state constitution.
Middle years
During the 1960s, he continued as publisher of the Missoulian in Missoula, Montana. While in Montana he was elected Vice President of the Lee Newspapers of Montana, which included Missoula, Billings, Helena, Butte & Livingston. He was elected a director of Lee Enterprises in 1963 and served on the Board for thirty-seven years. In 1970 he moved to Iowa and became the chief executive officer of Lee Enterprises, a national newspaper and media company. Schermer served as a director and as chairman of the American Newspaper Publishers Association in Washington, DC, now part of the Newspaper Association of America. In 1972 Lee Enterprises formed a joint-venture with Nippon Paint Company of Osaka, Japan and NAPP Systems, USA, that manufactured printing plates in a facility in San Diego, CA for over 400 newspapers worldwide. Schermer served as chairman and CEO of the joint-venture for 12 years. In 1978, at the end of China's Cultural Revolution he established the first joint venture of an American firm in China with People's Daily. He helped establish the English language newspaper, China Daily, and published China Trade News in this country. He was the first foreigner allowed to make an address in People's Daily. The joint venture placed the first advertising ever carried in People's Daily and other Chinese publications. Lee published several books on China including its first Official Tourist Guide in cooperation with the China International Tourist Agency. The joint venture was given the rights to place all advertising from the West in all of the publications in China. It also had the rights to publish all books coming out of China in the West other than in Japan.
Later years
In 1991, Schermer was responsible for merging the American Newspaper Publishers Association with the Newspaper Advertising Bureau and 5 other industry associations into the now 1500 member Newspaper Association of America. Schermer served as chairman of the National Board of the Smithsonian Institution for three years and remains on the board as an honorary trustee. In 1994 he received the Smithsonian's highest award, the Joseph Henry Medal. He serves on the board of The Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado as a life trustee, is a lifetime trustee of the Aspen Institute and the University of Montana Foundation, and is a former trustee of the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, the World Wildlife Fund and the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation. Schermer Hall on the first floor of the West Wing of the Smithsonian Castle is named after Lloyd G. and Betty A. Schermer. Schermer resides in Aspen and Tucson, Arizona with his wife Betty. They have two sons and five grandchildren.
