Meet the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association

cSPACE Marda Loop Tenant The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association (AMPA) is a provincial service organization that supports communities of independent magazines and freelance communities of writers, editors, illustrators, photographers and designers. AMPA’s membership includes magazines, organizations and post-secondary institutes in addition to individual members. Their 70+ magazine members include Where Magazine, Avenue, Swerve, UPPERCASE, and Alberta Views.

We spoke with Executive Director Suzanne Trudel about AMPA’s plans for cSPACE Marda Loop:

Tell our audience about AMPA, and your work as a Provincial Service Organization.

AMPA is a cultural service support association that sustains a healthy magazine publishing industry by serving the people who publish, create, print and distribute a uniquely Albertan view of the world. We’re a classroom, a forum, an advocate and a united voice for magazine publishers in the province. AMPA supports magazines through promotion, advancement, and practical programs that foster skills training and industry growth.

What are your plans for cSPACE Marda Loop – tell me more about your vision for the space.  Why did you choose to locate your organization at cSPACE Marda Loop and what excites you about the community that is forming?

Alberta magazines play a significant role in developing and sustaining a creative community in the province. AMPA is thrilled with the opportunity to build new relationships and be part of a larger community that understands the value of a vital arts and cultural sector. We look forward to being part of an inspired creative space that allows for the development of creative thinkers, fosters innovation and confidence in new ideas, and builds current and future audiences.

What events, seminars, library spaces, classes etc. can visitors to cSPACE Marda Loop expect to encounter from AMPA?  

The skills training AMPA provides for professional creators spans many disciplines. We target seminars, webinars and full-day intensives for writers, editors, art directors, designers, illustrators, photographers, circulators, web designers, app developers, marketers and sales teams. Our programming ranges from how to tell better stories through words, images or social media, grow audiences and readers, to the nuts and bolts of how to develop a business plan, write a grant proposal or manage volunteers and interns.

AMPA also supports professional consultations with subject matter experts from both inside and outside the sector, offers mentoring to new publishers, supports the Alberta Magazine Awards and a paid internship program.

Tell us a little about your membership. Are you seeing growth of the magazine industry in Alberta, or are there any interesting players coming onto the scene?

AMPA’s magazine membership is made of more than 65 new and established consumer, trade and member-driven publications as well as individuals from the freelance community and more than 20 industry partners that include printers, shippers, distributors, retailers and event companies, web and app developers and ad agencies.

There’s an Alberta magazine for almost every interest – from community, city and regional publications, to politics and business, sports and leisure, university life to innovative small-press arts and literary publications.

What is the future of publishing, and how is AMPA helping its magazine members adapt?

Alberta magazines connect to the neighborhoods, cities and landscapes in which readers live and are an important part of creating vibrant and growing communities. Alberta publishers deliver 18 million copies of Alberta magazines to readers each year. The conversations we create are as vital to the fabric of the province as they’ve ever been.

As the realignment of the media industry continues, so too do the pressures on publishers to extend their brands. The many ways in which consumers access content has disrupted traditional revenue sources for publishers, who now must solve the challenge of how to leverage a brand outside the confines of a print magazine in order to survive.

Nimble and innovative publishers are creating new products and ways to reach untapped audiences. These non-traditional ventures have become as important as the ad sales and subscription revenues upon which they once, almost exclusively, relied.

High engagement between magazine brands and their readers is imperative ans successful publishers commit to reviewing and challenging practices and approaches to extend brands, content and their audiences.

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AMPA joins a number of literary and language-based non-profits that will call cSPACE Marda Loop home, including Alexandria Writers Centre Society, Alliance Francaise, and a number of individual makers in mediums including illustration, photography, and design. Watch for the announcement of our exciting slate of new tenants in the next newsletter!