The Mountain Enterprise is a weekly newspaper published since 1966, circulating in the Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass east and west of the Grapevine section of the Interstate 5 in the San Emigdio Mountains region of California, midway between Los Angeles and Bakersfield. Its sister publication is The New Mountain Pioneer, published monthly.
Coverage area
The newspaper's 600-square-mile coverage area spans northern Los Angeles County, eastern Ventura County, and southwestern Kern County, including the developments of the 270,000 acre Tejon Ranch property, the Western Antelope Valley, Gorman, Lebec, Frazier Park, Lake of the Woods, Lockwood Valley, Cuddy Valley and the Pine Mountain Club community.
Ownership
The first edition of The Mountain Enterprise was issued on September 22, 1966, by Nedra Hawley Cooper as a mimeographed, hand-stapled and hand-drawn publication; its first editions were produced on a blue Royal typewriter now housed at the Ridge Route Communities Museum & Historical Society. Fred Kiesner was editor from 1973 to 1976.
Keith Nelson, superintendent of Ridgelite Products, and Kitty Jo Nelson, a teacher, purchased the business from Neil Keyzers in 1985. The Nelsons sold it to Bob Weisburg and Morrie Prizer in 1995.
In late 2004 the management of Hometown Publishing, LLC and its publications The Mountain Enterprise and The New Mountain Pioneer plus the Mountain Communities Phone Book was assumed by Gary Meyer (publisher) and Patric Hedlund (editor). In November 2006 ownership of Hometown was taken over by Meyer, Hedlund and Pam Sturdevant, with general management continuing under Meyer and Hedlund. In 2014 ownership passed to Meyer and Hedlund, who remain its managers. It is today published in a tabloid format of between 28 and 36 pages weekly.
Awards
2017
The National Newspaper Association (NNA) announced The Mountain Enterprise was awarded First Place for Best Breaking News Series for "SWAT Standoff Alarms Mountain," by Patric Hedlund.
2015
The Mountain Enterprise was awarded First Place by the National Newspaper Association for Best Feature Photo by Jeff Zimmerman.
2014
First Place for Best Editorial Comment was awarded for Patric Hedlund's "Brought to you compliments of AB109: Convicted burglar returns to the mountain."
2013
The Mountain Enterprise was awarded Artistic Photo Second Place from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for Patric Hedlund's image of a colorful benefit run for Mountain Youth Can Change Communities (MyC3). That same year Gary Meyer and Patric Hedlund won Editorial Comment Second Place for "Lebec County Water District needs serious leadership." The newspaper also won Second Place for Front Page design that included a towering smoke plume over Interstate 5 by Aaron Rose, and a fourth Second Place for Website excellence.
2011
In April 2011, The Mountain Enterprise won the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) 2010 First Place award for Best Website and First Place for Online Breaking News Coverage.
2010
In April 2010, The Mountain Enterprise won the California Newspaper Publishers Association First Place award for Best Website and First Place in Public Service for its 2009 ongoing coverage of the remote Pine Mountain Club community's struggle to obtain life-saving firefighter-paramedic service.
2009
The newspaper won awards from the National Newspaper Association on July 10 for (1) a series of investigative reports on the starvation of horses in Lockwood Valley (second place), (2) reporting on the struggle by Pine Mountain Club residents to secure Kern County's first firefighter-paramedic program (third place), (3) Editorial Writing about the newspaper's public-service responsibility in "The Stinkin' Public and Our School District's Brain Drain," by Patric Hedlund (Honorable Mention), and (4) an environmental story headed "Secret Negotiation between Tejon Developers and 'Big Green' Groups Sprouts Deal" (third place).
2007
On July 14, the newspaper was given three awards for excellence by the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
They won First Place in the Environmental Reporting category for achievement in continuous reporting of the Fallingstar home development proposed for 700 homes around Frazier Mountain High School by Patric Hedlund, Gary Meyer, members of the community and The Mountain Enterprise team.
The newspaper also won First Place for Best Website.