Our Green Shoots

by Michael McCullough

The day I realized this recession was for real, I was driving out to interview a business owner at a building materials company in Nisku. When I got there, I was surprised to find just one car in the parking lot. There being no one in the reception area, I had to call my contact on his cell phone just to find him in the building. He later explained to me that the staff members were on a work-share program and this was one of their days off. He was the only guy there.

As this anecdote illustrates, there are industries that have been worse affected by the global recession than periodical publishing, but not many. It was a year ago this month that we had to make our first job cuts and other cost-saving measures at Alberta Venture to cope with the pullback in advertising. We won’t be sorry to bid farewell to 2009.

Nonetheless, I feel proud to think that the quality if not the quantity of journalism we’ve been able to bring readers has not suffered. For that, we need look no further than the daily news, in many cases new developments on themes we have already explored in depth: the impact of shale gas discoveries on government revenues, a new downtown NHL venue for Edmonton, the trials of Cold-fX maker Afexa Life Sciences, former Utilities Consumer Advocate David Gray’s criticisms of the deregulated electricity market. In every case, we were there early, and the stories we published still stand up today as essential background for any reader interested in the subject.

At the same time, the design of the magazine has improved. The three-part cover of last December’s issue (with Business Person of the Year Brett Wilson) was named a finalist in the mid-size magazine category at the Canadian Newsstand Awards in October.

Albertaventure.com continues to grow and evolve as a media property distinct from the magazine. We have been able to offer interactive features that greatly expand on the limited space available in the print product, such as our Alberta’s Best Communities database, aimed at businesses looking to locate in one town or another. (This too has been recognized as a finalist for the Canadian Online Publishing Awards in the best cross platform category.) Since Best Communities Online went live in June, we’ve added two more towns not included in the print survey and have another two in the works. Likewise, our free, sortable Venture 100 online package rivals the business data available on paid sites such as Globeinvestor and FPinfomart.

The improved and constantly updated content is reflected in visitation stats: in the 12 months following the redesign and relaunch of Albertaventure.com on Sept. 1, 2008, total hits and page views more than doubled from the year previous, the pages viewed per visit rose 57% and the average time spent on the site increased 32%.

So, like many of our readers, we have plenty of positives to point to. Still, like you, we’d like to see brighter economic times ahead.

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