''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 a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, Banff and Canmore. It is owned by Great West Newspapers. 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), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...

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'', 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 and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

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 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

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. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

called the reporting " gotcha journalism" 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 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Wayback machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

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 Newspapers established in 1995 1995 establishments in Alberta Publications disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in Alberta

See also

References

External links