At Avenue, our mission is to engage audiences and create connected communities through trusted storytelling. Beyond where to eat, where to shop and what to do, we’re also deeply interested in issues facing Calgarians, such as mental health, intimate partner violence, addiction, the housing crisis and the environment.
We’ve always explored these subjects thoughtfully and through a solutions-focused lens, highlighting the Calgarians who work to improve life here. These complex stories address difficult truths with meaningful context and insights — content we know our readers care about.
The challenge is that there isn’t always enough support through advertising for us to do these types of cost-intensive stories. The average editorial cost for a feature-length story of 2,500 words is approximately $12,000. This does not include printing and distribution. By their nature, these issues-based stories require more research and reporting.
That’s why we’ve created an innovative new model to tell these crucial stories. We need community engagement to make sure they get told more often and more thoroughly.
Avenue’s Community Story Development Fund gives local organizations and community members the ability to directly support coverage of important concerns.
Community builders like Calgary Foundation are already helping us tell stories that matter. “A Silent Violence” (July/August 2025) delved into intimate partner violence, specifically coercive control and how it increases the likelihood of homicide by nine times. “Plan Ahead” (September/October 2025) examined what Calgary’s groundbreaking 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness taught us and where we go from there. And most recently, in the March/April 2026 issue, “Food Fight” tackled food insecurity and how local organizations address its root causes.
“Sharing stories does something powerful — it makes the invisible visible,” says Taylor Barrie, vice-president communications for Calgary Foundation. “When we recognize ourselves in each others’ experiences, we strengthen our connections. Every story is a bridge, and when enough bridges are built, we can start asking, ‘how do we fix this together?’”
That is what Avenue’s community stories aim to do — bring awareness, understanding, empathy and solutions to civic matters to light, so we can collectively build our city for the future.
Through the Community Story Development Fund, community builders of all kinds help us pay writers, editors and fact-checkers to tackle these critical issues with care and sensitivity, while reflecting a diversity of voices and incorporating rigorous research and engaging design.
We’re honoured that you continue to see us as the source for Calgary’s stories. We’re committed to finding new ways to tell our city’s stories, and we hope you’ll join us in this endeavour.