Fast Forward Weekly shutting down
Posted Feb 20, 2015 10:13 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Fast Forward Weekly is stopping the presses.
The 19-year-old Calgary newspaper, which featured alternative news, views, and entertainment, announced Friday it will print its final issue on March 5th.
A statement on the paper’s website explains it was informed by its owner, Great West Newspapers, it would have to shut down because of slumping ad revenues.
Editor and Publisher Drew Anderson said despite the volatile world of print media, the move still came as a bit of a surprise, considering readership has stayed loyal, they launched a new website and staff were looking forward to a year of rebuilding the brand.
Unfortunatley, the reduction in ad dollars combined with competition and evolving media technology was too much.
Anderson himself was informed on Wednesday, while the full-time staff of eight got the news Thursday.
He said with the recent news, Calgary is losing a progressive voice.
“We were the alternative press in Calgary, so that meant that there were differing news stories, differing viewpoints, these opinion pieces that you don’t see in other publications, that really pressed for a more progressive Calgary and a more progressive Alberta and I think that that’s a fundamental loss for the city and for the province,” he said, adding the coverage of Calgary’s arts and entertainment community will also be sorely missed.
“We were so focused on the arts community and covered it like nobody else and that’s going to leave a black hole in a very important sector of the city,” Anderson said.
The future of Fast Forward’s website is still up in the air and Anderson said it will still be up for at least a month.
“We’ll see what sort of appetite people have for doing something like that and whether that’s something that’s tied to the company that owns us now or whether that’s the staff taking it over is a discussion for the future,” he said. “It’s really too early to comment on what shape it’ll take, but it would seem kind of stupid not to keep that going.”
Many Calgarians are expressing disappointment at the news, including Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
Fast Forward Writer Josiah Hughes expressed his gratitude for the years he spent at the paper, adding, it was sad the city will soon be missing a “crucial perspective on things.”
