Photo: Asad Chishti

The Sprawl wins 5 Alberta Magazine Awards

Celebrating our 9th anniversary with gratitude.

Jeremy Klaszus
• Newsletter

Yesterday marked the ninth anniversary of The Sprawl. And today we’re kicking off our 10th year with some exciting news.

At the 2026 Alberta Magazine Awards on Thursday, The Sprawl nabbed five wins—including Magazine of the Year!

“Its stories are thoroughly researched, expertly written, and thoughtfully edited, providing readers with meaningful context and insightful journalism on the issues affecting Calgary today,” stated the judges.

They specifically cited our “imaginative, innovative and impactful” coverage of the 2025 municipal election, which “encouraged Calgarians to become active participants in shaping their community.”

Our election team, including reporters Kelsea Arnett and Asad Chishti, won gold awards in the Service Journalism and Editorial Package categories for our series of 15 election zines containing bios of all the city council candidates.

Chris Pecora (our designer) and Sam Hester (our cartoonist) also won gold in the Feature Design category for these zines.

The judges specifically cited our ​‘imaginative, innovative and impactful’ coverage of Calgary’s 2025 municipal election.

The Sprawl was the only news outlet in Calgary to publish independently-written bios of all 126 candidates. Photo: Asad Chishti

And Meghan Lett, our 2025 intern, won silver in the Emerging Writer category for her Sprawlcast episode on the city’s tree canopy (A city of trees: The story and struggle of Calgary’s urban forest).

To top it all off, our mobile letterpress—a.k.a. the Pop-Up Press—got an honourable mention in the Innovation category.

I am incredibly proud of our team for these accomplishments.

Accepting the Alberta Magazine of the Year award with Alec Hamilton, Sam Hester, Meghan Lett, Jullianah Therese Ejoc and emcee Chris Turner. Photo: Natasha Avelar

I’m proud of our city, too. All of this work is possible thanks to our members—the people who step up to support our independent journalism.

The Sprawl is an anomaly in the Canadian media landscape because we are entirely reliant on readers and listeners for funding. The conventional wisdom in the news industry right now is that this can’t be done.

But Calgarians are proving that it can be done. And as these wins show, your support is of tremendous benefit to the city.

As The Sprawl celebrates our ninth anniversary, we’re aiming to get 90 new members by the end of September—and I’d love for you to be one of them. We need your support as we continue to dig deep on Calgary stories!

Why join? Here’s why some of our newest members have signed up this month, in their own words:

  • “I love the local nature of The Sprawl and the depth of research and reporting that help me understand the city better.”
     
  • “As a transplant to this part of the world, your reporting has given me much needed context, perspective and appreciation of where I currently live. New York and Montreal are nothing like Calgary! Thanks for all you do. So glad I stumbled upon The Sprawl.”
     
  • “Appreciate your dedication to local stories and digging in. Please take my Danibucks!”

I got a kick out of that last one. You people not only lift me up with your support—you crack me up, too!

You can sign up here. After you do, we’ll pop a Sprawl print pack into the mail for you with stickers, a Curious Calgary zine and a letterpress print from our Pop-Up Press. It’s our way of welcoming you aboard and thanking you for your support.

Thanks for being a part of this ongoing experiment in local journalism!

Jeremy Klaszus is founder and editor of The Sprawl.

Support independent journalism—help us get 90 new members!

Sign Me Up!

To celebrate The Sprawl’s 9th anniversary, we’re aiming to get 90 new members by the end of September. If you value in-depth, curiosity-driven journalism, support our work so we can keep digging into municipal issues in Calgary!