Val Fortney is a senior columnist at the Calgary Herald, where she has shaped conversations around social equity and cultural identity since 1998. Her reporting combines investigative rigor with compassionate storytelling, particularly in these areas:
Successful pitches to Fortney often include:
Notable recent work includes her 2024 investigation into food insecurity’s impact on working families and a 2025 retrospective on Calgary’s cultural journalism landscape. She maintains a particular interest in solutions-focused reporting that bridges individual experiences with policy analysis.
Val Fortney has cultivated a distinguished career spanning over two decades at the Calgary Herald, evolving from general assignments to nuanced explorations of social issues. Her work consistently bridges grassroots storytelling with systemic analysis, particularly in philanthropy and community development.
This December 2024 investigation into food insecurity combines statistical analysis from Food Banks Canada with firsthand accounts from Calgarians experiencing poverty. Fortney employs a narrative structure that contrasts holiday abundance narratives with the realities of working-class families, using Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank data to demonstrate a 38% year-over-year increase in demand. The article's impact led to a 22% increase in donations to the Herald’s Christmas Fund campaign.
In this January 2025 retrospective, Fortney reconstructs Calgary’s cultural evolution through the lens of urban publishing. She interviews founding editors and analyzes circulation data to reveal how the magazine captured the city’s transition from oil town to cosmopolitan hub. The piece serves as both media criticism and social history, contextualizing Avenue’s role in shaping civic identity.
This environmental justice report links climate change to urban policy, using temperature mapping data and interviews with unhoused populations. Fortney contrasts municipal heat mitigation strategies with grassroots efforts by organizations like the Mustard Seed, creating a blueprint for actionable solutions.
Fortney’s food insecurity reporting consistently uses hyperlocal examples to illustrate national trends. Successful pitches should provide access to Calgarians directly impacted by social programs, particularly those demonstrating community-led solutions rather than top-down interventions. For instance, her 2024 Christmas Fund coverage highlighted a single mother’s journey from food bank client to volunteer coordinator.
When discussing Calgary’s arts scene, connect present-day initiatives to their historical roots. The Avenue Calgary anniversary piece demonstrates her interest in how cultural institutions evolve alongside their communities. Pitches about new galleries, theaters, or festivals should include archival comparisons and interviews with legacy stakeholders.
Environmental pitches must combine meteorological data with demographic analysis. The heat wave article successfully paired Environment Canada records with hospital intake statistics, creating a public health narrative rather than abstract climate discussion. Propose sources who can discuss both personal experiences and policy implications.
"Fortney’s work embodies the Herald’s mission to amplify voices often excluded from mainstream discourse." - Calgary Herald Editorial Board, 2024
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Philanthropy, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
