The Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association is a not-for-profit trade association.  There are 79 member newspapers throughout Alberta and the Northwest Territories. They boast a combined verified circulation of +500,000.

The AWNA is part of a Canada-wide network of Community Newspapers through the News Media Canada (NMC), together with seven other provincial associations.

What guides us

AWNA’s purpose is to encourage, assist and ensure our members publish high quality community newspapers. The Association achieves this by prioritizing education, marketing and fellowship, and as a communication and service link between members and advertisers, agencies and government

Why this matters

Simple and genuine relationships between people matter. They are the fabric of a sustainable community. Weekly newspapers play a pivotal role in delivering information to the families in communities that maintain and strengthen that fabric by keeping people up-to-date on activities and concerns in their area.

Alberta’s community newspapers reflect the images, thoughts and everyday happenings of the communities they serve. While these communities may vary in size from tiny, isolated locations to bustling suburban centres, they share one important feature — a strong weekly newspaper.

Where we have been

Although formed in 1920, AWNA operated more as a fraternal organization until it was incorporated in 1975. During that year, a part-time Secretary-Manager – Bill Draayer – was hired. (Prior to 1975, George Meyer, publisher of the Taber Times, fulfilled that function on a voluntary basis.) 

In the late 1970s, a One Order-One Bill advertising service was launched, allowing advertisers to reach all of the province’s weeklies through the association. A central office was established in 1977.

Dennis Merrell, the Association’s current Executive Director, joined the AWNA in June of 1982, and became its Executive Director in May of 1983.  The AWNA computerized its advertising service that year, and then took a major step forward in 1985 by hiring a full-time Marketing Representative to help it deal with its growing list of clientele.

The Association recorded industry milestones, such as:

• the first Canadian association to develop a GIS (Geographic Information System) to help in the marketing of its member newspapers; 
• the first to contribute toward the establishment of a distance education program in journalism;
• the first to develop an online Advertising Sales program, launched in the fall of 2006;
• the first Association (in 1991) to organize an annual Newspaper Symposium for its members and staff;
• the first association to develop an online digital archive. 
• the first association to convert 100% to digital tear sheets. E-tears were rolled out to all national advertising clients on September 1, 2008;

Chronicling the first newspaper publishers in Alberta.