''Fast Forward Weekly'' (''FFWD'') was a news and entertainment weekly which provided news, alternative viewpoints, entertainment information, review articles and specialized advertising. It was distributed throughout

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, Banff and Canmore. It is owned by

Great West Newspapers Great West Media Limited Partnership is a Canadian publisher of weekly newspapers in the province of Alberta. It is headquartered in St. Albert, Alberta. The company is jointly owned by Glacier Media, a Vancouver-based publisher, and the local f ...

. With an assessed readership of 70,000 upon a distributed circulation of 30,000, the paper was one of the most widely circulated and well-respected alternative newspapers in Canada. The paper originated in December 1995 as Calgary's first

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

weekly publication. As of 2007, it was the only freely-distributed weekly newspaper of its type in the city, having outlasted a number of competitors including a short-lived Calgary edition of ''

The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, ...

'', which had originally been called VOX, the long-running '' Calgary Mirror'' (which folded in 2001), and the ''Mirror''s successor, ''

FYI Calgary In-Print "FYI" is a common abbreviation of "for your information" (or "for your interest"). "FYI" is commonly used in email, instant messaging and other messages to indicate an informational message, with an intent to communicate to the receiver that they ...

'', which ran for only five months in 2001. While the paper was initially arts-focused, in it later began covering more news stories and social issues. In 2008, the paper was criticized over publishing a controversial article quoting Calgary

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

MP Lee Richardson on comments regarding immigrants and crime which he later stated he regretted; clarifying he was referring only to youth gangs in the city. Canada's

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

called the reporting "

gotcha journalism "Gotcha journalism" is a pejorative term used by media critics to describe interviewing methods that appear designed to entrap interviewees into making statements that are damaging or discreditable to their cause, character, integrity, or reputati ...

" for taking his comments out of their intended context, while other party leaders called for his resignation. One of ''Fast Forward's'' most popular editions was its annual Best of Calgary readers' poll. For this, readers voluntarily submitted their responses to a large variety of questions, indicating their favourite (or least favourite) aspects of Calgary, including its food, people, culture, infrastructure, political leadership and more. After 19 years, ''Fast Forward Weekly'' shut down. Great West Newspapers announced February 21, 2015, that the last issue would be March 5, 2015. "Ad revenue was not enough to support the continuance of a free weekly newspaper" was cited as the main reason for the publications demise. The website, ffwdweekly.com, is offline but the snapshots of certain pages were saved 815 times between February 20, 2002 and January 5, 2022 and are viewable on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Wayback machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official siteAssociation of Alternative Newsweeklies: ''Fast Forward Weekly''
Newspapers published in Calgary Alternative weekly newspapers published in Canada Glacier Media Weekly newspapers published in Alberta Publications established in 1995 1995 establishments in Alberta Publications disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in Alberta

See also

References

External links