Welcome to a labor of love and an idea many years in the making. Before you is the AB Post, an online newspaper created to fill what I see as a significant void in our community. It began as an extension of the Facebook group I’ve run for over a decade called the Alberta Beach Community Post but I just never had the time to bring it to life. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/albertabeachcommunitypost),
There was a moment back in early fall 2024 when I truly saw the need for this publication. Police had cornered a suspect in the town of Alberta Beach and were telling residents to stay inside as helicopters, dogs, and multiple squad cars searched for the culprit. As locals tried to find updates, rumors spread quickly, along with misinformation. Drawing on my background as a news director for both newspapers and radio stations, I did my best to take proverbial charge of the situation and provide an accurate feed of the volatile and fluid situation. What became clear was that there was no central source of communication that didn’t rely on Mark Zuckerberg to share local news.
But I should also step back to more than a year ago, when I had attempted to launch a business directory to help local businesses reach the community on the same Facebook page but quickly realized it was a futile endeavour – after all – if a local business could advertise for free – why would they pay Facebook huge dollars to advertise on their site ? Subsequently Groups and Communities on Facebook have precious little tools to aid their members in reaching customers that doesn’t involve you getting out your credit card and spending thousands.
For years, I’ve been aware of the nearly impossible circumstances local business owners face when trying to get exposure for their ventures. Local print publications lost their audience 20 years ago, and there is no medium to match consumers with service providers in our area. The only real way to advertise is on Facebook, where the reach is sporadic, and the costs are prohibitive. For example if you’re a resident looking for a local painter — or a painter trying to find a customer – there was no way to connect with each other.
The whole concept behind the AB Post isn’t just to be a newspaper or a business directory, but a comprehensive central gathering location for everything in our community, bringing all the information into one spot. It has become cost prohibitive to succeed with a physical publication – yet at the same time most community online newspapers are of such poor quality they have no audience.
As I started building the AB Post, I kept adding sections and features. I added a forum section so you can discuss just about anything, an obituaries listing, highway road cams for highways 43 and 16, a classified section, and an events section. I even included a section for garage sale listings and an advanced local weather page (still under construction, as it requires a lot of coding). Not stopping there, I added a page listing community support groups like AA meetings, as well as a section for local churches to share their details. The list goes on.
I have no illusions that this project will make me rich—honestly, I’ll be happy if it adds a few bucks to my retirement income. Making money isn’t the point of the AB Post, though. Rather, it’s designed to be an intricate part of my community—our community.
This project also depends on you—a lot. It’s just a few of this at this point, and the backbone of the site is community content. Whether that’s classifieds, events, forum discussions—you get the idea. I need you to embrace this and use it. Post your thoughts, your items for sale, list your events, complain about the county—just use all its features so it gains traction and builds a user base. Subscribe to the Sunday edition, bookmark the weather page, or use it as your modern Yellow Pages to find a business you’re looking for.
Some parts of this site are still under construction, so please forgive the occasional broken link or “page under construction” notice. I have a long to-do list on my desk and am diligently working to check off items one by one. It may take me years to fully complete this project while also keeping the news content up-to-date and building out features and functions.
In the meantime, think of this site and project as yours, too. Its success depends completely on your use of it.
