Schumacher, who was born in Madison, Wisconsin, moved when he was 11 with his family to Las Vegas, and he has lived in Nevada ever since. He graduated from Pahrump Valley High School Pahrump Valley Times - Nye County's Largest Newspaper Circulation in 1984, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism in 1988 from the University of Nevada, Reno. He edited the college newspaper, Sagebrush, his senior year.

After graduation, Schumacher returned to Las Vegas to report for the Las Vegas Sun, where he worked for two years as a reporter and seven as city editor. Schumacher then went to work for three years as managing editor of Las Vegas CityLife, an alternative newsweekly. In 2000, he went to work for Stephens Media, where he launched the now-defunct Las Vegas Mercury, an alt-weekly, which published for four years until it folded after Stephens Media bought rival CityLife. Schumacher has been writing a weekly column for the Review-Journal since January 2006. In May 2008, he was named publisher of CityLife. Former Editor of Las Vegas CityLife Returns as Publisher | Association of Alternative Newsweeklies