50 Issues and Counting

The November issue represents the 50^th I’ve worked on as Alberta Venture’s editor. In that time I’ve seen four art directors, five assistant editors and five company receptionists, so I’m feeling long in the tooth even though in solar timekeeping it’s only been four and a half years.

But I can say without reservation that the creative team we have now, though smaller than it has been in the past, is the tightest, most committed and easiest to work with in all that time. Does the fear of job loss and the lack of other employment opportunities in this recessionary environment have something to do with it? Perhaps, in a small way. But I’ll take that silver lining.

Besides, it has more to do with the character of the individuals involved. Character, something that people used to talk about in aspects of life outside the hockey arena (Martin Luther King invoked it in his famous “I have a dream” speech) but has fallen out of usage in our increasingly relativist world, looms larger as a desirable attribute in employees during times of economic hardship. It boils down to a capacity for sacrifice – another concept that’s decidedly out of fashion – in the service of a collective goal or principle.

Sometimes that collective achievement gets recognized. Such was the case a few days ago when our Best Communities Online feature was named best cross-platform content at the inaugural Canadian Online Publishing Awards. (As our sales reps are now telling anyone who’ll listen, that makes ours the best cross-platform editorial package ever!)

At least half a dozen people contributed to this package in one way or another but the work of our associate editor Scott Messenger and webmaster Gunnar Blodgett making the interactive map and community information database go deserves special mention. And thanks to the efforts of our sales team, Best Communities also happens to be our most successful online feature from a revenue-generation perspective as well.

We’re print folks; none of us started out with any special affinity for new media. And virtually no media organization out there can claim to have cracked the nut of web publishing for profit. But we’re learning, bit by bit.

(Attention economic development officers: you can still get your community added to the map and database; just email feedback to request a questionnaire.)

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The four-hour lineups for the H1N1 vaccine once more demonstrate the extraordinary hold the concept of “free” has on consumers. I wonder what would happen if Alberta Health Services gave people the option of paying $20 for vaccination in an hour or less? Just a thought…

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With the federal cabinet’s nixing of any big public investment in the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline in late October, the project is once again truly dead, at least in this economic/energy cycle. I don’t see it being revived until natural gas reserves in the lower 48 states stop growing as a result of shale extraction techniques.

One thing the project has going for it is the long-term view of lead partner Imperial Oil Ltd. and its parent ExxonMobil. They always seem to get timing right and get long-term projects started and on-stream so that they meet the next energy boom, instead of catching it at the tail end. Once shale gas starts depleting itself, I wouldn’t be surprised if Imperial restarted the project without government help.

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