Together, we’re building a future for local journalism
An upbeat, community-driven, made-in-Calgary model
The Sprawl is Calgary pop-up journalism. Join the 450+ monthly patrons who believe Calgary’s stories matter!
Last summer my family piled into our car and headed for Vancouver. As we drove westward I felt the joyous exhilaration of a summer road trip. But there was something more.
I felt a certain nostalgia for summers past, when I worked as a staff writer for FFWD, Calgary’s alternative weekly newspaper (it folded in 2015). I started thinking aloud on Twitter: “Calgary badly needs a news/analysis website in the FFWD vein. I often wonder — how hard can it be to start such an outfit? How might it begin?”
Almost immediately people started responding. “Do it! See what happens!” “I’ll donate.” “Love it. Would support this.” Buoyed by all the community enthusiasm, I started exploring the idea more seriously.
It can be tempting for journalists to scold readers about paying for local news. We decided to come at it from a totally different angle.
It felt like everyone contributed a piece in the weeks that followed. Peter Hemminger, who I worked with at FFWD, offered the name “The Sprawl.” Shelley Youngblut, a longtime mentor and the founder of Swerve magazine (which Postmedia quietly killed this summer), suggested just covering the civic election.
This led to the idea of “pop-up journalism.” Instead of covering everything all the time, I’d go deep on one story at a time.
Meanwhile, my favourite radio show, CBC’s The Signal, ended its 10-year run. Just before midnight on September 2, I listened in the dark as host Laurie Brown signed off with these words:
“This is a confounding time. We are poised on the edge of changes in the world so massive, we don’t know where to look. We’ve spent enough time looking away. It’s time to turn towards the noise. How to respond? When the going gets this weird, it’s time to turn human. Make a move to undo the unkindness of centuries in a hundred small ways.”
“Do it with curiosity and joy and revel in this mystery.”
My task last summer was to synthesize all of this into… into what? Not the next big thing, not something perfect, not a grand new journalistic institution. Something small and human and flawed and surprising.
“When the going gets this weird, it’s time to turn human.”
Nearly a year after The Sprawl launched in September 2017—well, I’m surprised, all right. The Sprawl has gone beyond that that initial election pop-up, publishing five in-depth editions on issues of civic importance. We make a monthly Sprawlcast in collaboration with CJSW.
And our election coverage recently won a national Digital Publishing Award.
Today, we’re directly supported by 450+ monthly patrons who believe in a different kind of journalism for Calgary. Depth, not breadth. Context, not clickbait. Constructive, not cynical. Everything we do is guided by the 11 principles of the Sprawl Manifesto, developed with direct input from our community.
These are dark times for the news industry, and it can be tempting for journalists to scold readers about the importance of paying for local news. We decided from the very beginning to come at it from a totally different angle. Instead of lecturing people or putting up a paywall, we went out and made something — and then invited Calgarians, in a positive manner, to be part of it. And together we’ve built a community.
“Your stories are consistently engaging, thoughtful, and relevant. They are important not only for what they provide as a news source, but also reinforce a strong sense of what community means in Calgary.”
—Nathaniel Schmidt, Sprawl patron
If you’ve not encountered any of our work, I invite you to listen to the Sprawlcast above. Or our recent episode on the transit history of International Avenue (includes full transcript). Or read this recent story on who really benefits from bike lanes.
Then, if you like what you’ve seen and heard, consider signing up on Patreon and becoming a Sprawler!
I’d love to welcome you aboard!
Jeremy Klaszus
Founder/editor
THE SPRAWL
P.S. If you sign up for $10/mo or more, you get one of these snazzy super-soft t-shirts! (Please note: Patreon is all in USD)
