Who we are
The Albatross was started by a group of people who spent way too much time at their respective college papers and decided it wasn’t quite time for real jobs (not that anyone would hire us anyway). We think Canada is a terribly interesting place but that a lot of Canadian news is insanely boring. So we started this blog to start to change things.
What we do
We spend countless hours reading, watching and criticizing stuff on the internet. Now you can reap the rewards as we share the things that make us think, laugh or cringe. Whether it’s something goofy or something substantial, there’s always something interesting in Canadian news, and we try to curate that interesting stuff for our readers. We also try and provide stories that people can talk about, engage with or riff on.
What we don’t do
We don’t take ourselves very seriously, but there are certain things we don’t want to be known for: sexism, racism, homophobia, fascism and any other kinds of small-mindedness.
Where you come in
Not everything we post will be amazing, but that’s not the point. It’s only the start of the conversation. What we want the Albatross to be is a community. If we do something well, let us know. If we’re being shitty, don’t let us get away with it. We can’t remake the Canadian news diet alone; we need your help. The best way you can help is by sharing what you see on the Albatross with your friends and family and by being active in the comments section. Be smart, be witty and be kind — but feel free to tear someone apart if that person is being an asshole. Also, we always appreciate a good news tip if something important or interesting catches your eye. Financial spreadsheets, cat videos or dirty jokes — we’ll take them all. If you are the writerly type and you have an original piece of writing you want us to run, we’ll take that too.
What we value
1. Information - We value the collection and dissemination of information.
2. Fun - If we aren’t fun to read, we’re doing our job wrong. We want to be playful, energetic, exciting, and sometimes deeply, deeply mean, because all of that stuff is enjoyable and entertaining and interesting, and those are not words you would normally use to describe Canadian news.
3. Honesty - We don’t want to try and spin anything. We also don’t want to try and pull off some kind of false “balance.” This means we don’t take sides, but it also means we don’t lie about all sides having equal merit. We also don’t want to be polite. We want to take people down, make people mad, and publish the sort of things that would make old-school outlets blush with shame and indignity. Also we aren’t afraid to say “fuck” once in a while.
4. Humour - We believe humour brings people together and enables people to understand complex and controversial ideas. Humour breaks the ice on issues that are otherwise stymied by overly political bullshit.
5. Insight - Even if it’s just a line or two, we want to give our readers something to chew on and respond to when we’re curating stories. Something they hadn’t heard before, or something they think but nobody else in the media is saying.
6. Journalism - We value the people who spend their lives collecting news and telling important stories and believe that where possible they should be paid fairly. Furthermore we believe that journalism plays an integral role in ensuring accountability in our society. Sometimes we want to give our readers the worst and explain why it’s the worst, but other times we want to give our readers the best and acknowledge it as the best. The Albatross is about pushing Canadian media toward the latter, rather than the former.
7. Community - We want to get to know you and to know what matters to you. We want to hear from you – in emails, in comments, on social media. We want you to come back to us, to make us one of your first stops in your daily news reading.
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