More than a dozen years ago, northern Albertans Tormaigh and Jenelle Van Slyke decided to bet on their community — and themselves.
The husband and wife duo — Tormaigh is originally from Dixonville, and Jenelle is from Meander River — had worked odd jobs before studying media and communications at university in Victoria.
When they moved back to their home province, they tried their hands at a couple of different media ventures before settling on a quarterly print magazine called Move Up that would feature businesses and lifestyle pieces from their home area. The first issue published in spring 2013.
“We’re really scrappy, so when we weren’t bringing in a lot of money, we were able to roll with that,” Jenelle told CBC in a recent interview. “And when our revenues are up, you know that works, too.
“When our business wasn’t doing well … we were never going to let it die.”
It was not an easy road, but years of hard work are paying off.
That northern scrappiness allows the pair to distribute 22,000 free copies across eight municipal districts and counties.
Move Up — “Work, Live and Prosper in Northwestern Alberta” — lands in every mailbox in the area.
The most recent issue, at 100 pages, shone a spotlight on several stories, including a pottery maker in Manning, a honey producer in Saddle Hills County and a leather craftsman in La Crete.
It’s not lost on the couple that they undertook this venture as the print media landscape was shrinking before their eyes.
“We started the magazine at a time where we were watching other newspapers and magazines close down by the dozens, so we kind of knew the environment we were getting into,” Tormaigh said.
But the physical experience of holding a magazine, learning about businesses and communities that bear a striking resemblance to your own — even though they’re hundreds of kilometres away — is something that appeals to both older and younger generations.
“Being able to see the reflection of ourselves — like, representation matters — and being able to see the things in your community to celebrate, I think it’s really important to be able to share that with your community and celebrate each other,” Jenelle said.
The couple’s insistence on partnering with communities, and finding out what they want to see in the magazine, is fundamental to the operation.
Tormaigh said getting people to buy in not only makes the magazine better, but lets advertisers know exactly what kind of product they’re touting their business in. It’s a win-win.
When the Van Slykes started the magazine, they met with each municipality where they wanted to distribute. They still regularly meet with those partners before they assign or write stories for each issue.
Amber Armstrong is one such partner who was there at the very beginning. These days, she’s the manager of communications at Mercer International, which operates a major pulp mill near the town of Peace River.
When the magazine was still just an idea, Armstrong was working for Daishowa-Marubeni International, the mill’s owner at the time.
Twelve years ago, Armstrong was looking at how to attract more people to come and work in the Peace River area.
“We were looking for power engineers and welders and millwrights and, you know, qualified people and we wanted to showcase and demonstrate why we had so many opportunities here. But it was really hard as one company to do that,” she said.
Tormaigh and Jenelle came along at exactly the right time.
“I started to write articles on behalf of my own company,” Armstrong said.
“Just to say, you know, this is a little bit about what the forest industry is like and why forestry, along with agriculture and oil and gas, are like the golden triangle of what draws people to the north.”
Living in Peace River is grounding for Armstrong. The time she’s able to spend outside, her long friendships, and many other aspects keep her in the north, she said.
“I think that’s what Move Up does for me. It reminds me that when my world starts to seem too small, that there’s a lot of opportunities and people out there trying to make it better. So that’s what keeps me here.”
Highlighting ‘the cool things’
Assistant editor Dani Wearden, who lives in Berwyn, Alta., was a fan of Move Up long before she started working at the magazine.
“People that I knew locally were getting featured in this magazine that was going out to so many people in our area and outside of our area,” she said.
“I just really liked the idea of highlighting a lot of the cool things that happen in the north, because it doesn’t usually happen. We don’t usually get a huge spotlight on us.”
The magazine is beloved, Wearden said. Because of that, its reach only grows.
“We are seeing so many more people recognizing people in the magazine, and then they reach out to us and they’re like, ‘How do we get involved?'”
Wearden said she now has the opportunity to do more editing as the team at Move Up expands. It’s something she loves, and she said it’s amazing to see the growth of other writers, issue after issue. She also said working for the Van Slykes has been a dream.
“They have been so supportive and just incredible to work with. That has been a really fun aspect of it all.”
‘Not afraid to roll up our sleeves’
At the end of the day, the magazine is a love letter to Alberta’s north; its scrappiness, creativity and vastness, its close communities.
There’s enough going on in northwestern Alberta to sustain a much more frequent publishing schedule, Tormaigh said. Even after a lifetime of connection to the north, the couple said they get to know someone every week doing something extraordinary they’ve never heard of.
Generally, northerners are industrious, helpful, and busy, Tormaigh said. It’s not uncommon for one person to be holding down a full-time job (or two or three) while also volunteering for multiple organizations they care about.
“We all kind of have dirt under our nails. You know, and I think I wear that with pride,” Tormaigh said.
“We’re not afraid to get our hands dirty. We’re not afraid to roll up our sleeves.”