There are currently three active employees left to hold down the fort at the 108-year-old local award winning publication, the Tehachapi News. One of those three employees, the only staff reporter, has already given notice and will sign off next week. Staff reduction at the once thriving community news source has steadily decreased over the past three to four years, when there were more than a dozen regular employees and at least a dozen freelance contributors. At least two additional employees have been placed on long-term, stress-related medical leave by their physicians. At least one of those individuals has been named by the KC District Attorney's office as one of several victims named in a grand jury investigation of vulgar, racist and threatening emails alledgedly circulated and electronically published by one of Tehachapi's elected officials. So how exactly does 108 years of community newspapering come to a press grinding halt? Ask the parent company, The Bakersfield Californian, about their unofficial policy of budget cuts by attrition, drastically decreased comissions and wages. They have recently begun to charge a fee for publishing obituaries in the incredibly shrinking 108-year-old community newspaper. Soon, they might be printing their own.
