About Rocky Mountain Outlook

Rocky Mountain Outlook

The Rocky Mountain Outlook is the weekly newspaper of Canmore and the Bow Valley, Alberta — the independent local paper launched on September 20, 2001, by three longtime residents, now owned by Great West Newspapers. Delivered free across the valley — Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, the Municipal District of Bighorn and the Stoney Nakoda First Nation — it covers the mountain community's news: the councils, the development battles, the wildlife, the workers' valley. In September 2026 it marked 25 years of publication: the Bow Valley's newspaper of record. (Wikipedia lists rmoutlook.com as its website.)

Overview

The Rocky Mountain Outlook is the Bow Valley's independent weekly: the paper that has covered Canmore's transformation from coal-mining town to mountain resort community, Banff's tourism pressures, the valley's housing crisis and its wildlife corridors. Founded by journalist Larry Marshall, salesman Bob Schott and editor Carol Picard — all longtime valley residents — it was the upstart that joined the Canmore Leader and the Banff Crag and Canyon as the valley's third paper, and outlasted them both. The founders' credentials were the valley's press corps itself: Picard had edited the Canmore Leader; Marshall had managed both the Leader and the Crag and Canyon. They knew the valley, they knew the business, and they bet on the community: a paper by valley people, for valley people.

The paper's distinction is its independence and its longevity: launched nine days after September 11, 2001, into a valley dominated by chain papers, it survived the 2005 sale to Black Press Media and the 2010 purchase by Great West Newspapers to become the valley's paper of record. Canmore itself was the perfect beat for an upstart: the former coal-mining town reinventing itself as a mountain resort community — the mine closed in 1979, the 1988 Winter Olympics brought the Nordic centre, and the town boomed with Calgary exurbanites, athletes and tourism workers. A town transforming that fast needed a paper of its own: the Outlook became it. Free and ad-supported, with a circulation of 9,000, it is the community's bulletin, watchdog and memory — the paper the valley reads to know itself.

History

The Rocky Mountain Outlook was officially launched on September 20, 2001 — created and financed by longtime residents Larry Marshall, Bob Schott and Carol Picard. Schott became the sales manager; Picard, a former editor of the Canmore Leader, was named editor; Marshall, a former managing editor of both the Canmore Leader and the Banff Crag and Canyon, was publisher. It joined the Canmore Leader and the Banff Crag and Canyon as newspapers in the Bow Valley.

The paper joined the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association in 2004. In 2005 it was sold to Black Press Media; in 2010, Great West Newspapers purchased it from Black Press. Publisher: Cheryl Fraser. Editor: Jordan Small. Headquarters: 201, 1001 6 Avenue, Canmore, Alberta T1W 2V3 — in the heart of the mountain town the paper has covered since 2001.

In September 2026, the paper turned 25 — a milestone marked by its longtime editorial cartoonist, who has drawn the weekly cartoon on the editorial page since the very first issue: 25 years of smart-ass commentary on the valley's foibles. The cartoonist's own story is the paper's story: moved to Canmore a month before the first issue after seven years in Banff and three years drawing for the Banff Crag & Canyon; mentored by Carol Picard, the Outlook's first editor; self-syndicated, left full-time work in 2006, became a full-time wildlife artist — the grizzly paintings that made his name grew from the cartooning discipline the paper gave him. Twenty-five years, one cartoon a week, every week: the valley's illustrated conscience. Carol Picard, the first editor, mentored a generation of valley journalists and artists.

Content

The Outlook covers the Bow Valley: Canmore town council, Banff, Lake Louise, the MD of Bighorn, the Stoney Nakoda First Nation — the development approvals, the housing crisis, the wildlife encounters, the tourism economy, the schools, the sports. It is an award-winning paper: a 2013 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards winner, second place for General Excellence in 2020 — recognition for a community weekly competing against the country's best. Its journalism holds the valley's power to account: the councils approving the developments, the resort industry shaping the town, the provincial government managing the park — the watchdog of the mountain town. Its beats are the mountain town's perennial conflicts: growth versus environment, workers versus resort, locals versus visitors.

The paper's editorial page — with its 25-year cartooning tradition — is the valley's forum: the letters, the opinions, the debates that define the community, the weekly conversation the valley has with itself. Its news pages cover the councils, the courts, the businesses, the people.

Coverage and Audience

The paper is delivered across the Bow Valley: Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, the Municipal District of Bighorn and the Stoney Nakoda First Nation — spanning from Lake Louise in the west to the Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country in the east. It does not charge readers and relies on advertising for income.

Its audience is the valley's community: the workers, the families, the business owners, the retirees — the people who live in the postcard. In a valley where the workers who serve the tourists can't afford to live, where the grizzlies wander the golf courses, where the development battles define the politics, the paper is the community's common ground: the free weekly in the racks at the grocery store, the valley's bulletin board and its debating chamber. Circulation: 9,000.

Ownership

The Rocky Mountain Outlook is owned by Great West Newspapers, which purchased it from Black Press Media in 2010 — the St. Albert-based community newspaper company that owns weeklies across Alberta. The ownership arc: independent founding in 2001 by three valley residents who risked their own money; sale to Black Press Media in 2005, the B.C.-based chain; purchase by Great West in 2010, returning it to Alberta community-newspaper ownership. Through it all, the paper kept its valley identity: the Canmore address, the Bow Valley coverage, the free weekly rhythm.

Digital Presence

The paper publishes online at rmoutlook.com (Wikipedia lists rmoutlook.com as its website) — the valley's news updated digitally, with the print weekly's full content: the breaking news, the council coverage, the wildlife alerts, the sports, the opinion pages. Its social media channels distribute the valley's journalism — the headlines, the photos, the community announcements — to readers across the Bow Valley and the valley's far-flung diaspora: the former Canmorites, the seasonal workers, the visitors who fell in love with the mountains. Its social media channels distribute the valley's news to readers across the Bow Valley and beyond.

As of 2026, the Rocky Mountain Outlook continues — 25 years after the September 2001 launch, still the Bow Valley's newspaper of record, still free, still independent in spirit, still the Outlook, still the valley's own paper, still and always the Outlook — the Bow Valley's paper. From the three founders' gamble to the award-winning weekly, from the first issue's cartoon to the 25th anniversary, it remains what it has always been: the valley's own paper, the record of the Bow Valley.

Note: website left empty in frontmatter per project rule for url-unverified rows; Wikipedia lists rmoutlook.com as its website.