By Allison Baker and Viviane Fairbank

By some strange irony, Canadian journalism made headlines in the last couple of months of 2015–and not always for good things.

It feels like just yesterday when Andrew Coyne began the new and ongoing trend of resignation-via-Twitter…

Then there were our colleagues who faced the wrath of every journalist’s arch enemy: money. The budget cut is truly the deepest.

The clouds cleared for a second when the new Liberal government ended the 10-year-long battle over no-information-land between journalists and Parliament Hill. How long the sunny days will last is to be determined.

Finally, let’s not forget The Walrus tears that flooded our Twitter feeds. Jonathan Kay apologiiiize (yes, we’ve linked the song. Journalism could use a soundtrack).

Here’s to whatever journalists decide to do in 2016 (including the 16 of us on the masthead)!

Offleash is the Ryerson Review of Journalism‘s first-ever regular podcast, published on RRJ.ca every second Wednesday at 3:33 p.m.

In this week’s episode of RRJ’s Offleash, Viviane and Allison speak to Alex Gillis, who recently made news in the journalism industry after his story was killed then used by The Walrus. We also interview Derek Finkle from the Canadian Writer’s Group about the different kinds of kill fees, and RRJ alumna and freelancer Carly Lewis about her experiences with kill fees and story theft.

Music courtesy of Paul Nathan Harper, also known as A F L O A T. Find his music here: @a-f-l-o-a-t

A heavy silence takes over the room as Sylvia Maracle, executive director of the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, takes a pause during her seven-minute speech. “You need to make sure that when people arrive they understand that some of the trauma they have left is the trauma that exists here for the original people of this country,” she tells the audience at “The Walrus Talks Cities of Migration.” Maracle’s speech is titled “Strangers in Our Own Land,” and her soft voice grows louder as she says that when some people arrive in Canada, they are not remotely aware an indigenous population is present. “We’re asking you to make some space for the conversation.”

The Talks are one such space for conversation, often on subjects covered in the pages of The Walrus. Despite a report of tumultuous internal affairs within the editorial department of the publication, the event series runs smoothly and generates much-needed revenue to sustain the respected magazine.

With approximately 20 Talks across the country annually, and an average attendance of 400 to 450 people, the series has allowed The Walrus Foundation to move its business model away from advertising dependence. This year, the Talks generated $1.3 million, making up approximately 27 percent of the foundation’s revenue. “It is our lifeblood,” says Shelley Ambrose, publisher of the magazine. She has run the Talks with David Leonard, the foundation’s event director, since 2012.

The origins of the series date back to 2007. As a non-profit organization, The Walrus Foundation is restricted to a smaller ad revenue than mainstream commercial magazines, and when the financial slowdown hit and advertisers began pulling out, the already limited ad base became even more precarious.

The foundation turned to creating events to make up for the third of revenue that had once come from advertising (charitable donations and circulation make up the rest). Ambrose moved to create a more engaging platform that would continue to uphold The Walrus’s mission statement to “promote debate on matters vital to Canadians.”

To find the just-right way to do this, Ambrose played Goldilocks: some events were too long, some too disorganized and some too old-fashioned, boring and ineffective. “We were looking for a format that allowed for a lot of ideas with the right length of time,” she says. “Anything over 90 minutes, your bum is numb, your brain is tired, you’re thirsty and you need to pee.” A former CBC radio producer, Ambrose settled on an arrangement akin to live radio: eight speakers delivering seven-minute speeches about one broad “Walrus-y” topic—a serious issue such as resilience, water or transportation.

After Leonard joined the team in 2009, he and Ambrose set out to make sure the right conversation happened in the right city. Leonard’s aim is to generate a conversation that can continue after the event, so he curates speakers from different backgrounds. For instance, at “Cities of Migration” in Toronto, other speakers included pianist Robi Botos; Gautam Nath, a marketing expert who immigrated from India; journalist Desmond Cole; and Meb Rashid, the medical director of the Crossroads Clinic, a Toronto-based clinic that serves refugees. Then, Leonard makes sure that about 20 percent of the audience are invited guests such as business leaders, philanthropists and community leaders in culture and education. “Imagine if the head of the TTC, a social media advocate for cycling, a CEO and a community leader came together and talked about transportation,” he says. “That’s a win.”

Occasionally, the topics come together with stories in the magazine in a way that highlights the symbiotic relationship. This unity was evident at “The Walrus Talks Transportation.” “This is a perfect world,” says Ambrose. “We’re talking transportation. The magazine’s cover story is on Uber by Jon Kay. Jon Kay is a speaker tonight.” In this way, the Talks generate revenue for the magazine, but they also create content as contributors become speakers and vice versa.

Together, the Talks and the magazine attempt to profitably adapt to the way people consume information today, combining the best elements of live events, radio and social media. Consultant D.B. Scott, president of Impresa Communications Limited, says the Talks have the ability to draw subscribers to become part of the greater community and community members to become subscribers. The downside of this is that people may not want to go year after year, time after time. “They’re driven by the topic and the presenter, and maintaining a high quality of talks will be, in my opinion, a challenge,” says Scott. “There is a question as to whether there is a limit to what they’re going to be able to sustain.”

Leonard and Ambrose have already booked 21 Walrus Talks for next year. For each one, Leonard will fly to the host city, help the speakers prepare, set up the venue and live-tweet the speeches.

One constant at each event is a big red poster for The Walrus Foundation that sits next to the podium, the words Read and Watch visible from every corner of the room. The word order is inaccurate, because without the revenue generated from people watching the Talks, there would, perhaps, be no Walrus to read.

For seven years, Toronto Life editor Sarah Fulford has seen the glossy covers of her magazine go through a demanding selection process before hitting newsstands. Since the editorial and art direction teams, as well as the publisher, are involved, the final version is often the result of many revisions and even late changes. The May 2015 cover story was to be Tinder dating on Bay Street, but Desmond Cole’s “The Skin I’m In,” a memoir about being repeatedly subjected to police carding, was too compelling not to showcase, and the photos were understated yet powerful. So that became the choice. Fulford believes a successful cover demands attention with punchy headlines, colours and photos that make a shopper stop, pick the magazine up and flip through its pages. “The best Toronto Life covers,” she says, “are the ones that feel irresistible.”

Given that a magazine has three seconds or less to make an impression on a newsstand reader, irresistibility is crucial. But with more and more readers going online for their stories, grabbing them in stores is no longer the only goal. Toronto Life and The Walrus are two magazines that still place traditional emphasis on the cover, but their editors, Fulford and Jonathan Kay, acknowledge that its power as the public face of the magazine is shifting.

At Toronto Life, the conversation often begins with Fulford and art director Christine Dewairy about a possible cover based on a story already in progress or any sketches and headlines they have in mind. Once they’ve agreed on some potential ideas, they take them to the editorial team. Dewairy begins drafting mock-ups and discusses them with the editorial team. By the time the issue goes to print, she has often created over 40 of them.

“Covers are the personality of the magazine—the persona,” says Patrick Kennedy, a Western University professor who teaches a course with a focus on producing consumer magazines. “It has to have impact and it has to connect with the audience that the magazine tends to serve.” As newsstand advisor for Toronto Life and The Walrus, Annie Gabrielian studies the performance of past covers. Real estate covers do well at Toronto Life, while the Summer Reading issues are popular with readers of The Walrus. Gabrielian views the cover as an invaluable marketing tool and looks for background colours to draw readers in. She also uses tiny badges and starburst images to tell readers the issue is a special or seasonal one, and to celebrate exclusive material. However, even with the work of the consumer marketing team, at many magazines, the publisher has the final say.

Unlike Toronto Life’s in-your-face fonts and photographs, The Walrus covers boast warm pastels and artistic illustrations that contrast its cover stories on science, politics, health and literature. Brian Morgan, the magazine’s art director, says fine art and illustrations have always been a part of its covers, which he thinks add an element of surprise for readers. Circulation and marketing manager Bryan Maloney agrees. “We’re not trying to shock you as you walk by the newsstand—we’re trying to intrigue you,” he says. “You want someone to stop and think.” This appeals to The Walrus readers who, on average, are 41, enjoy reading more serious writing and have a household income of almost $100,000.

As digital readership grows, magazines put the focus on producing quality features for the magazine instead of paying as much attention to the cover. Kay thinks covers are irrelevant in the digital age because most people find stories through social media: “When you click on a link, you don’t think of what’s on the cover,” he says, adding that it must still work to intrigue print subscribers and impulse buyers. “It is strictly a print phenomenon.”

But Fulford argues that the digital age has given covers a new purpose: they appear on Facebook walls, across other social media and in photo galleries. Citing Caitlyn Jenner on Vanity Fair and Bill Cosby’s accusers on New York, Fulford says print covers can spark viral online discussions on important issues.

A recent controversial example was Toronto Life’s July 2015 cover promoting Leah McLaren’s “The Cult of Jian.” Many readers were horrified to see a smiling Jian Ghomeshi on the magazine. “The topic itself is incredibly upsetting. The allegations, if true, around what he did are truly horrific,” says Fulford. “In my experience, when you tackle tough subjects, you stir up feelings, and we certainly did that.”

Dewairy struggled to craft a cover for the issue that was attention grabbing yet sensitive. Colour looked too celebratory and was more disturbing for people, so after discussing it with the editors, she decided on a black-and-white treatment. “I wanted the type to be bright and bold and his face to be a memory of him, of that Jian persona—smiling in an almost menacing way,” she says. Regardless of the controversy, or perhaps because of it, Hunt says the issue was a success: “It was the best-selling Toronto Life issue on the newsstand in the last two years.”

Last Tuesday evening I learned some new things from Jesse Brown: he and a friend made the song that opens his show Canadaland, News Canada—which provides free editorial content—sources articles from the federal government and, well, that’s about it.

“The news, Jian and me: a conversation with Jesse Brown,” was advertised as two hours of in-depth discussion about the Canadaland host’s work, especially what went into breaking the Ghomeshi story.

Instead, as these things often do, it turned into a conversation of how great he is. When asked how he finds his stories, Brown said they “just come” to him. The moderators asked if swearing is part of his brand and wondered if he’d welcome fame. The talk turned into “My show, me and me.” And it’s not all Brown’s fault. What is he supposed to do when questions like these are lobbed up like softballs other than knock them out of the park?

Brown is a polarizing figure. On an episode of Canadaland’s “Short Cuts,” The Globe and Mail’s senior media writer Simon Houpt spoke about his recent feature on Brown’s track record of playing “fast and loose” with facts. Another journalist told Houpt, in reaction to the piece, “It’s as if people decided they were a ‘Jesse’ or a ‘Globe.’” To some, Brown is a saviour. To others, a danger. To more: a jerk. And he knows it.

“As a friend,” Corey Mintz wrote in the Toronto Star, “I feel qualified to say that Jesse Brown is a smug, loud-mouthed, know-it-all who’s easy to dislike.” Brown himself freely admits he’s “unapologetically sensational.” Certainly, writing that Amanda Lang undertook a “shocking campaign” sounds more like something on Upworthy than a news site. But as a crowdfunded journalist, he needs to grab attention somehow. Getting people to objectively scrutinize their favourite media personnel is difficult. The only way people are going to notice you today is if you shove yourself in front of their faces. “The work speaks for itself” adage doesn’t hold true anymore.

Brown is also often asked to speak about himself, and in many interviews, mentions how thrilling it is to be Canada’s only media critic. In his “Nobody’s a Critic” piece in The Walrus, he wrote, “Although we have a few media reporters, our attempts at substantive criticism never last long.” (Although the Review has been around since 1984.)

The self-promotion is paying off. Brown has became something of a celebrity and support for Canadaland has reached almost $10,000 a month. He also told the audience Tuesday night that he’s getting more tips than ever, which is deserved. He’s dug up important stories. His podcasts are often honest and thoughtful. But like anyone, Brown’s reporting isn’t perfect—he’s been accused of jumping to conclusions and has his own critics.

So what is Jesse Brown? He’s a saviour to those who’ve ignored the media reporters working in Canada before 2013. A danger to those in the press with secrets that affect their work. And to many, a jerk. He’s a mix of all three. He’s a good journalist.

Welcome to the Alumni Essentials, or, as it shall be known for the next week: the Carly Lewis show! This is Lewis’s second time featured in this series and she’s the first person ever to fully take it over. Cue applause.

She really left us no choice, because whether it’s about Girls, the year’s best albums or Jian Ghomeshi (all topics in the following stories), her writing provokes you. It makes you want to join the essential dialogue she’s creating. Help yourself enter it by reading along:

1. The year’s best albums are full of women’s anger—and it’s glorious

2. The Year of Complicity: on Jian Ghomeshi, Bill Cosby, and their enablers

3. Single White Females: is Girls solving a representation problem or spoon-feeding its target audience?

That’s it for this week. Got a piece that should be featured here? Email the blog editor. We know you’re following the Review on Twitter. But how about its masthead? 

Wondering where our past writers are now? Well, you’ve come to the right place! This year, we’re keeping up with the Review‘s alumni and showcasing our favourite pieces of their current work.

First up this week, spring 2007 editor Julia Belluz interviewed Richard Preston—author of The Hot Zone, the non-fiction thriller about Ebola published in 1994—about how the virus has changed in the last 20 years and what scares him most about it today.

After you’re through getting your blood pumping with that interview, settle in and read former Review instructor Lynn Cunningham‘s vividly personal tale of why quitting smoking is a long, lonely battle, because we don’t consider it a true addiction.

Finally, winter 2011 chief copy editor Ashley Csanady brought a unique take to the aftermath of the attack in Ottawa, compiling some of the most moving photos from the day after and visually parsing speeches made by Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair and Justin Trudeau.

That’s it for now, be sure to check back in next week for another edition of the Alumni Essentials.

Do you have a piece that should be featured here? Email the blog editor. And don’t forget to follow the Review and its masthead on Twitter.