While the paper was initially arts-focused, in it later began covering more news stories and social issues.

In 2008, the paper was criticized over publishing a controversial article quoting Calgary Conservative MP Lee Richardson on comments regarding immigrants and crime which he later stated he regretted; clarifying he was referring only to youth gangs in the city.

[3] One of Fast Forward's most popular editions was its annual Best of Calgary readers' poll.

"Ad revenue was not enough to support the continuance of a free weekly newspaper" was cited as the main reason for the publications demise.

The website, ffwdweekly.com, is offline but the snapshots of certain pages were saved 815 times between February 20, 2002, and January 5, 2022[4] and are viewable on the Internet Archive Wayback machine.