“Well, there goes The Walrus.”

October 31, 2015 9:13 AM

Meltdown at the Walrus by Jane Lytvynenko and Jesse Brown

A public dispute between a freelance writer and a recently terminated managing editor at the Walrus has motivated a series of allegations and revelations about the chaotic inner workings of the national literary magazine. Employees past and present described an organization in disarray. As Walrus publisher Shelley Ambrose herself put it in an internal email sent to editor-in-chief Jon Kay last month and provided to Canadaland, “we have never been this disorganized," and "we are in a bit of a melt down.” Canadaland spoke with 19 current and former Walrus employees, ranging from unpaid interns to former editor-in-chief John Macfarlane. Our discussions reveal allegations of workplace bullying and verbal abuse, an accusation of editorial theft, a rash of exits from the magazine by a trio of senior editors and others, controversial firings, and a widely felt “toxic” work environment known to management who disregarded frequent pleas for an end to an intimidating and exploitative office culture.

DISCLOSURE: One of the authors of this piece, Jesse Brown, once wrote an article for the Walrus. He experienced no conflict with any of the people mentioned in this piece.

posted by Fizz (15 comments total)

This article described something so awesomely horrible (Hitlerific?) that I laughed out loud a few times. It's like a revenge fantasy come true for anyone who has ever worked for a dysfunctional employer - names have been named (in the media, no less), the bad guy fired, the remaining executive made to look like incompetent idiots.

But CDN$11/hr for a fact checker? Ink-stained wretches indeed.
posted by Nevin at 9:17 AM on October 31, 2015

Once John Kay took over, I was done giving my money to The Walrus. I did not renew my subscription this year. Which is a shame, there were some great writers and stories, a magazine that I used to enjoy.
posted by Fizz at 9:26 AM on October 31, 2015

 → But CDN$11/hr for a fact checker?

And only that much because the commies at MOL made unpaid internships illegal in Ontario.

I liked The Walrus. But damn, didn't it get comfortable with itself quickly, and revert to a predictable roster of Canadian Literary Names.
posted by scruss at 9:54 AM on October 31, 2015 [6 favorites]

I really tried with the Walrus, particularly at the beginning. And I did read some good stuff. But overall, for a magazine whose mandate was pretty much EVERYTHING (albeit with a Canadian spin), I found it dull, uninspiring, and at some point just stopped picking it up. And now to discover what was going down behind the scenes in the name of that dullness -- well, there oughta be a law.
posted by philip-random at 10:09 AM on October 31, 2015 [5 favorites]

Geist is a better magazine.
posted by Nevin at 10:13 AM on October 31, 2015 [4 favorites]

Jonathan Kay's editorial reign at The Walrus has made Maclean's look breathtakingly avant garde by comparison. YMMV.

But holy shit - if you're the publisher and need to tell the editor-in-chief that he needs to, you know, SHOW UP IN THE OFFICE during press week? Reminding him there's an editorial and production schedule he actually needs to try to follow (shit happens, sure, but this is a magazine, not an ER)? You need to find another editor-in-chief.

In her words:

And, sorry to repeat, you need to be here during production week (which goes from Wed to Wed). It is not possible to do this remotely.....

And do it if for no other reason than that it's good for morale when deadlines are looming to physically be there for consultation and last-minute decision making.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:35 AM on October 31, 2015 [2 favorites]

I quite liked the Walrus at the start, and was a subscriber for a few years. Quality stuff, but... the serious articles really went on and on. This probably reflects only poorly on me, but I didn't have it in me to slog through them anymore, and it ended up becoming one of those magazines I subscribed to but never read.
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:49 AM on October 31, 2015 [1 favorite]

So the background machinations are more interesting than the actual magazine itself. I've subscribed for a few years mostly out of a sense of desire to support Canadian journalism and writers, but the damn thing is usually pretty boring.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:52 AM on October 31, 2015 [2 favorites]

That time the Walrus cited AskMe
posted by sevenyearlurk at 11:21 AM on October 31, 2015

sevenyearlurk

Your original comment is appropriate, considering what some of the posters up above have written with regard to their subscription and experience reading The Walrus over the years:

The Walrus is a Canadian New Yorker/Harpers wannabe that never quite manages to hold my attention.

posted by Fizz at 11:27 AM on October 31, 2015

Alex Gillis' story is also a total bummer. I only occasionally write as a freelancer for magazines since it's so hard to find magazines that will pay a decent rate. I've never received an advance, so I have to trust that if a magazine has commissioned me to write something they are going to pay for it at the end of the day. It would be awful to have a magazine spike a story after I had worked on it for months and had been responsive to their requests. But to have the magazine reuse the materials without even paying me...
posted by Nevin at 11:57 AM on October 31, 2015

Yeah, if the publisher could give herself a $70K raise to $200K, while the fact checkers are making $11 an hour, that erases any guilt I had left about no longer subscribing.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:57 AM on October 31, 2015

I remember Shelly now. She used to produce some of Pamela Wallin's TV ventures.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 1:25 PM on October 31, 2015

I interviewed there once and since have met enough former employees to understand I dodged a bullet.
posted by SassHat at 8:17 AM on November 6, 2015

Some of said former employees interviewed here in the podcast followup to the article in the FPP.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:55 PM on November 6, 2015