Unconfirmed rumors are circulating about a major downsizing of the West County Times. Old timers will recall when Dean Lesher ran the Richmond Independent out of business by delivering free copies of the West County Times to Richmond Independent subscribers for months. When the Independent folded, the free delivery stopped. Later, Knight Ridder, Inc. bought the West County Times, which is essentially the Contra Costa Times with West County news reduced to a page or less. 

Now, it appears, the Contra Costa Times (including the West County Times) is dropping 87 staff members, including a large number of reporters. The West County Times editor in the Times Richmond office, Kathy Edwards, is already gone. The word on the street is that the next step will be downsizing the West County Times to a weekly. What a shame that a city of 100,000 doesn’t have a real local newspaper of general interest.