| Categories | Regional magazine |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 10 per year |
| Circulation | 20,000 |
| First issue | January 1998 |
| Country | Canada |
| Based in | Calgary |
| Language | English |
| Website | www.albertaviews.ab.ca |
| ISSN | 1480-3151 |
Alberta Views (also AlbertaViews) is a general interest magazine published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada that covers political, social and cultural issues in the province of Alberta. Its monthly circulation is 20,000 copies. Alberta Views was named Canadian Magazine of the Year at the 2009 National Magazine Awards. John Ralston Saul calls Alberta Views “the new model for what a magazine can be in Canada.” [1]
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Alberta Views magazine was first published in January 1998. It was initially a quarterly; since 2006, the magazine has published ten issues a year. Alberta Views celebrated its 10th anniversary with the January/February 2008 issue. The founding publisher is Jackie Flanagan, a Calgary college educator, novelist and philanthropist.[2] In a 2006 acceptance speech for a Public Interest Alberta award, Flanagan cites a trip to India, in which she witnessed widespread social inequality, as a catalyst for founding the magazine. She also cites the policies of former Premier of Alberta Ralph Klein, specifically his government's financial cutbacks to public education, healthcare, infrastructure and social services in the 1990s, and proposes that Alberta Views acts as a forum for citizens who support the public good.[3]
I went to India and I saw things there that drenched me with sadness and I thought that the problem there was this terrible distance between the rich and the masses of poor, without public infrastructure, without sufficient public health, public education… I couldn’t be joyful there.[3]
The magazine publishes a minimum of three long (i.e., 3,000+ word) feature stories every issue as well as original short fiction and essays. Alberta Views' regular departments include columns by Governor General's Award and Giller Prize-nominated author Fred Stenson ("Wit") and acerbic reviewer Alex Rettie ("Rettie on Books"), book reviews, arts listings, letters to the editor, an anacrostic puzzle and "Eye on Alberta," a collection of previously published writing and written artifacts from around the province.
On June 5, 2009, Alberta Views was named Canadian Magazine of the Year (2008) at the National Magazine Awards. Alberta Views has won numerous Western Magazine Awards including Best Magazine (2005, an Utne magazine Independent Press award for local/regional coverage (2007) and the 2004 Alberta Mental Health Board award.[1]
Alberta Views has alternatively used the tagline “The Magazine About Albertans by Albertans,” “Leading the Political, Cultural and Social Debate,” and “A Forum for Dialogue.” The magazine’s contributors include journalists, magazine writers, artists, academics and politicians. Its contributors include many self-identified progressive and left-leaning personalities from Alberta (including Kevin Taft, former leader of the provincial Liberals and Maurice Tougas, former Liberal MLA). Alberta Views has profiled conservative and liberal politicians and leadership candidates alike, and featured interviews with former Conservative premier Peter Lougheed, former Conservative premier Ralph Klein, Conservative MLA Ted Morton, former Reform Party of Canada leader Preston Manning, current Wildrose Alliance Party leader Danielle Smith and former Alberta Green Party leader George Read. Alberta Views has published stories written by former Reform MLA Jan Brown and Conservative MLA Dave King. The magazine does not endorse a political party.
Alberta Views is not to be confused with Alberta Report, a defunct right-of-centre weekly newsmagazine based in Edmonton, Alberta, founded and edited by Ted Byfield.
The September/October 2003 issue of Alberta Views featured the torso of a naked woman on the cover, referencing a story in that edition concerning gender. Several newsstands refused to carry the edition; the magazine published two separate covers and distributed the less risqué cover (featuring a motif of bathroom signs) to select newsstands.
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