About The Walrus

The Walrus

The Walrus is a Toronto-based general-interest magazine publishing long-form journalism on Canadian and international affairs, alongside fiction, poetry and podcasts. Launched in September 2003, it was conceived as a Canadian answer to Harper's, The Atlantic or The New Yorker — a national magazine of ideas about Canada and its place in the world. Published by the charitable Walrus Foundation, it has become one of the country's most decorated magazines, extending its reach through a national speaker series, documentary television and branded content.

Overview

The magazine publishes eight issues a year, mixing reported features, essays, investigative journalism, fiction and poetry. Its mandate, as stated since launch, is to be a national general-interest magazine about Canada and its place in the world, committed to publishing the best work by the best writers from Canada and elsewhere for readers curious about the world. That ambition — serious, long-form, writer-driven journalism — has defined the title through two decades of media-industry upheaval.

The Walrus Foundation, the magazine's charitable arm, has grown the brand into a multi-platform operation: the print and digital magazine, online editorial content, podcasts, a national speaker series called The Walrus Talks, Walrus TV documentaries, and The Walrus Lab, which produces branded content for clients.

History

The magazine's creation story begins in 2002 with David Berlin, a former editor and owner of the Literary Review of Canada. Berlin began promoting his vision of a world-class Canadian magazine and met with then-Harper's editor Lewis H. Lapham to discuss creating a "Harper's North" — the American magazine plus 40 pages of Canadian content. As Berlin searched for funding, a mutual friend introduced him to Ken Alexander, a former high-school English and history teacher who was then a senior producer of CBC Newsworld's CounterSpin and shared Berlin's hope of founding an intelligent Canadian magazine dealing with world affairs.

Funding arrived from two foundations: the Chawkers Foundation, run by Alexander's family, agreed to give the prospective magazine $5 million over five years, and the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation promised $150,000 for an internship program — enough to proceed without the Harper's partnership. Berlin and Alexander then hired creative director Antonio de Luca and art director Jason Logan to envision the launch, and The Walrus debuted in September 2003.

The launch was capitalized to make a splash: the magazine debuted with an initial print run of 50,000 copies, and by June 2004 its audited subscription base had reached 41,000. Critical recognition was immediate — the first two issues, the only ones published in 2003, drew eleven National Magazine Award nominations and won three gold awards, an unusually decorated start for a new Canadian title.

Berlin, an Israeli-born journalist who grew up in Canada, served in Ariel Sharon's Sayeret Shaked reconnaissance unit, attended medical school at Tel Aviv University, studied social and political thought at the University of Chicago, and edited the Literary Review of Canada from 1998 to 2001 before becoming a founding editor of The Walrus.

The early years were turbulent. The magazine won Magazine of the Year at the National Magazine Awards in 2006 and collected 27 gold, 15 silver and 93 honourable mentions in its first five years, most under Alexander's editorship — but the Walrus Foundation struggled to raise money. In 2006 Shelley Ambrose arrived as executive director and co-publisher, bringing the unusual combination of a journalism background and fundraising skill the foundation needed. At the time the foundation had essentially one donor, related to the magazine's family; Ambrose revisited the foundation's mandate to create forums for conversations vital to Canada and diversified the operation across platforms. The key structural decision — obtaining charitable status for the magazine — allowed a three-legged revenue stool of advertising sales, circulation sales and donations, sponsorships and charitable giving. (Charitable status also capped advertising at 30 per cent of content.) By 2015 the foundation had hosted 140 Walrus Talks speakers in 11 cities, and Walrus TV was producing original documentaries based on the magazine's stories for the Smithsonian Channel.

Ken Alexander resigned as editor-in-chief in 2008, stepping down that July after the September issue was put to bed. He had advanced $2.7 million of his inheritance to the magazine and was integral to securing its charitable status. In May 2009, with advertising down as much as 50 per cent in the recession, Ambrose described the five-year-old magazine as "quite literally clinging to the ice floe" and made a public video appeal for donations, asking: "What kind of a country are we if we can't support this kind of publication?"

Content

The magazine's editorial content centres on long-form journalism: reported features and essays on Canadian politics, social issues, science, the environment, business and international affairs, written at a length and depth few Canadian publications attempt. Fiction and poetry by Canadian writers share the pages, continuing the literary tradition of the great general-interest magazines it emulates.

The Walrus Talks extend the editorial mission onto the stage — "take it off the page and throw it on the stage," as Ambrose put it — bringing the magazine's writers and ideas to live audiences across the country. Podcasts and Walrus TV documentaries carry the same journalism to audio and video audiences, while The Walrus Lab applies the magazine's storytelling craft to branded content for clients. The foundation describes its work as award-winning independent journalism, fact-checking, national ideas-focused events and podcasts, with a mission to provoke new thinking and spark conversation on matters vital to Canadians.

Coverage & Audience

The Walrus is a national magazine with a readership of Canadians curious about the world — educated, civically engaged readers who want Canadian stories told at international standard. Its audience extends beyond subscribers through the Walrus Talks, which have taken the brand into communities across the country, and through digital and broadcast extensions that reach readers who may never pick up the print edition.

The magazine's awards record testifies to its standing within the industry: Magazine of the Year in 2006, dozens of National Magazine Awards golds, and a reputation as the country's leading general-interest magazine. The foundation sums up its mission as provoking new thinking and sparking conversation on matters vital to Canadians — a mandate that extends beyond the magazine to the talks, podcasts and documentaries that carry its journalism to audiences who may never subscribe, and that has made the brand a fixture of Canada's ideas establishment as well as its magazine industry.

Ownership

The Walrus is published by the Walrus Foundation, a registered charity based in Toronto. The charitable structure — unusual for a general-interest magazine — is central to its business model, enabling the donations and sponsorships that sit alongside advertising and circulation revenue. The foundation is governed as a non-profit; LinkedIn lists the organization as a nonprofit in writing and editing, founded in 2003, headquartered in Toronto, with 11 to 50 employees.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, thewalrus.ca, publishes online editorial content alongside the print magazine's digital editions, plus podcasts and information about The Walrus Talks. The foundation's multi-platform strategy — print, tablet, phone, stage, television — was an early response to the unbundling of magazine media, built from the necessity of justifying charitable support for journalism. As Ambrose told an interviewer, the foundation's mandate to create forums for conversations vital to Canada nowhere says it must publish a magazine — the magazine was the original forum and remains a very important one, but the diversification into events, video and audio is what made the organization truly national. The brand is active on social platforms, where its long-form features and ideas programming find audiences beyond the subscriber base.