ABQ Live

What ABQ Live does

ABQ Live is a privately held, Albuquerque-based local media and entertainment company that operates a WordPress-based digital publishing platform serving residents and visitors of Albuquerque and New Mexico. The company's core product is ABQ Live Magazine, a digital flipbook and print publication covering food, drink, music, art, film, auto, sports, and style content across the local market. It is operated under the Kalico Media parent entity and operates sub-brands including NM CANN, a cannabis-focused vertical covering dispensary listings, grow guides, and cannabis culture, as well as the ABQ Live Model Team program.

The platform's product portfolio spans editorial content, an extensive photo gallery library documenting local events and nightlife, an events calendar with subscription and export capabilities to Google Calendar, iCalendar, and Outlook, and a Happy Hour Guide aggregating daily specials across Albuquerque bars and restaurants. It also operates ancillary services including a 360-degree photo booth rental business and ticketed event experiences (e.g., the ABQ Live Mini Golf Open Bar Crawl via Eventbrite integration). The technology stack is conventional, relying on WordPress CMS with the real3d-flipbook plugin for magazine rendering and standard event calendar plugins, without disclosed AI/ML, API, or proprietary technology layers.

ABQ Live generates revenue through two primary streams: display advertising sold to local businesses, non-profits, and individuals on a contact basis, and a $50/month recurring subscription for venues to list their happy hour deals and daily specials in the Happy Hour Guide. Distribution is entirely regional, leveraging organic social media (34.8k Instagram followers, 16.2k Facebook fans, ~800-869 X followers), email/newsletter subscriptions, and self-serve event submission portals to drive traffic to abq-live.com. The customer base is highly distributed across local SMBs and 21+ adult consumers interested in nightlife, dining, entertainment, and cannabis content.

Name

ABQ Live

Legal name

ABQ Live

Website

https://abq-live.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

ABQ Live is an Albuquerque-based local media company that publishes ABQ Live Magazine, NM CANN cannabis content, event calendars, and a Happy Hour Guide for New Mexico residents, monetizing via advertising and $50/month venue subscriptions under Kalico Media.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Albuquerque

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Happy Hour Guide Subscriptions: Monthly subscription service at $50/month allowing venues to list their happy hour deals and daily specials in the official ABQ Live Happy Hour Guide. Venues pay to be listed and featured in the digital guide.
2. Display Advertising: Local businesses, non-profits, and individuals can purchase advertising placements across the website and digital magazine. Contact-based sales for advertising and marketing opportunities.

Pricing tiers

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

ABQ Live operates a digital media platform for Albuquerque and New Mexico that publishes an editorial magazine (ABQ Live the Magazine), a cannabis-focused sub-brand (NM CANN), a subscription-based Happy Hour Guide for venues, an events calendar, photo galleries, and a dispensary directory. The company monetizes primarily through monthly venue subscriptions to the Happy Hour Guide ($50/month) and display advertising sold to local businesses, non-profits, and individuals, while consumers access content and event/happy hour information for free.

Product overview

ABQ Live is a digital media company serving Albuquerque and New Mexico with a platform of interconnected content products. The core offering is the ABQ Live Magazine (available in digital flipbook and print formats), complemented by NM CANN, a cannabis-focused publication covering dispensaries, news, and culture. Additional products include Photo Galleries, an Events Calendar with subscription capabilities, a Happy Hour Guide, the Model Team program, Photo Booth Rental services, and event/happy hour listing services for local businesses. The products work together to serve the local entertainment, nightlife, food, and cannabis communities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ABQ Live the Magazine Digital and print magazine featuring local news, entertainment, music, style, culture, food, drink, art, film, auto, and sports content for Albuquerque and New Mexico. Published in an interactive digital flipbook accessible on desktop and mobile, with a multi-year archive of volumes and issues.
• NM CANN Cannabis-focused publication covering dispensary listings, cannabis news, grow guides, strain reviews, and cannabis culture across New Mexico. Operates as a dedicated vertical under the ABQ Live media platform.
• Happy Hour Guide Subscription-based guide ($50/month per venue) listing daily happy hour specials and deals at Albuquerque bars and restaurants, organised by neighbourhood. Venues pay recurring monthly fees to be listed and featured, and consumers access it as a free consumer directory.
• Events Calendar Local events listing and calendar service allowing users to discover, add, and subscribe to Albuquerque events. Supports calendar subscription export to Google Calendar, iCalendar, Outlook 365, and Outlook Live, plus .ics file export.
• Photo Galleries Event and nightlife photography showcasing local events, photo booths, concerts, festivals, and community gatherings in Albuquerque. Extensive gallery library spanning multiple years.
• ABQ Live Photo Booth Rental Mobile 360-degree photo booth rental service deployed at events, parties, and corporate functions in the Albuquerque area.
• ABQ Live Model Team Modelling/brand-ambassador team program offering community project participation and marketing services for ABQ Live clients across editorial, promotional, and event activation work.
• Dispensary Listings Cannabis dispensary directory covering New Mexico, organised by city, with direct links to dispensary websites and cannabis retailer information.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Time Out: Time Out is a global digital media brand covering food, drink, music, events, and nightlife in major cities worldwide. It is the broad incumbent analog to ABQ Live's local entertainment coverage model, operating at much larger scale across many metros.
• Eventbrite: Eventbrite is the dominant event ticketing and listing platform. ABQ Live already integrates with Eventbrite for ticketed events, and Eventbrite represents both a partner and a competitor for local event discovery — particularly relevant to the Happy Hour Guide and event calendar products.
• Eater: Eater is a Vox Media-owned digital publisher focused on local restaurant and food coverage in multiple US cities. It shares ABQ Live's local food, drink, and dining editorial focus and serves a comparable reader demographic.
• Thrillist: Thrillist is a national digital media publisher covering food, drink, travel, and entertainment. It shares ABQ Live's editorial pillars (food, drink, music, local experiences) but operates at a national level rather than a single-metro focus.

Direct peers

• Do317: Do317 is an Indianapolis-focused entertainment, events, and local lifestyle platform with a near-identical playbook to ABQ Live — curated event calendar, venue listings, editorial content, and nightlife coverage for a single metro audience. Operates as a direct functional peer in the local digital media space.
• Do502: Do502 is a local events, music, food, and nightlife platform serving the Louisville/Indianapolis area. It mirrors ABQ Live's model of combining an event calendar, local editorial content, happy hour listings, and venue partnerships for a single metro market — the closest comparable business model and structure.
• Leafly: Leafly is the leading cannabis media platform with dispensary listings, strain reviews, and industry news. It is the direct comparable to ABQ Live's NM CANN sub-brand, which covers cannabis news, dispensary directories, and grow guides in New Mexico.

Emerging players

• Localeur: Localeur is a local recommendation platform where residents share authentic neighborhood spots across multiple US cities. It shares ABQ Live's hyper-local content approach but crowdsources content rather than producing editorial coverage.
• Oh My Rockness: Oh My Rockness is a local live music discovery platform serving a single metro (NYC) with concert listings, venue information, and editorial coverage. It is comparable to ABQ Live's music and nightlife content vertical in a more focused, single-vertical form.

Regional players

• Albuquerque Journal: The Albuquerque Journal is the dominant daily newspaper serving the same Albuquerque metro market. It competes for local advertising dollars and audience attention, though its coverage is broader (news, sports) versus ABQ Live's entertainment/nightlife vertical focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/abqlive
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCECFF5nGqm-zutk_RrHLRCg
• Facebookfacebook.com/AbqLiveMagazine
• Instagraminstagram.com/abqlive
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/abq-live

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ABQ Live