1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Internships

Discussion in 'Journalism Jobs' started by True Son, Oct 13, 2008.

  1. True Son

    True Son New Member

    Is there a Web site that lists available internships or is that a thing where I should just contact the paper or Web site about? And if that's the case, where are some places you would recommend looking into internship opportunities?
     
  2. Bullwinkle

    Bullwinkle Member

    http://www.journalismjobs.com/Search_Results_internship.cfm

    There's quite a few internships posted there. Might be a good idea to start applying now, and be sure to keep a lookout for others to pop up over the next few weeks.
     
  3. True Son

    True Son New Member

    Is there an easier way to find openings specific to sports?
     
  4. Bullwinkle

    Bullwinkle Member

    It depends on what you are looking for. In these tough economic times, many papers aren't willing to provide opportunities for paid internships. You'd have a much easier time finding one that instead offers college credit.

    Now, whether your situation will allow you to take an unpaid summer internship, I don't know. But while many professors will tell you never to take an unpaid internship, I personally think it's a good idea if it could open something up down the road.

    I know many people who have taken unpaid internships, proved themselves, and then got hired once they got out of college. At the very least, you can grab some invaluable experience.

    I'll try to look around for you, but I would suggest sending an e-mail to the sports editor of your hometown paper and ask if he has anything available for the summer. Never hurts to ask.
     
  5. JakeandElwood

    JakeandElwood Well-Known Member

    Well you can check out the MLB.com thread and see if you're interested in that. Does your school help at all?
     
  6. bake1234

    bake1234 Member

    ASNE is a gold mine: http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=3749

    I found out about two of my previous internships there.
     
  7. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    If you are going to take an internship, especially an unpaid or low paying one, be VERY selective. My mistake years ago was taking the first one that was offered and it didn't do me much good besides the three hours university credit.

    There are so many organizations out there today offering really great internships that just didn't exist 20 years ago. So decide what your ultimate job would be and start there and work your way down the list, cause once you're out of school, the options narrow considerably.
     
  8. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Contact your J-School.
     
  9. turnovers

    turnovers Member

    Pretty soon all newspapers will be on the lookout for a full staff of unpaid interns.
     
  10. MU_was_not_so_hard

    MU_was_not_so_hard Active Member

    I don't care how bad it gets, don't ever take an unpaid internship. It's not that you're just not making any money, it's that you will be walked all over because they don't respect you. There's no reason to.
    Probably a bit broad-brushy, but we are not expendable.
    If you can't find a paid internship, just try to freelance as much as possible, hopefully with one or two publications.
     
  11. turnovers

    turnovers Member

    For the newspapers that still have a freelance budget, they need freelancers. Bad. Shrinking reporting staffs only enhances the need. If you can write coherently, you can freelance.
     
  12. tdonegan

    tdonegan Member

    Sorry to dredge up an older threat, but freelancing is great for the one or two jobs that pop up near you through postings. Stringing will supplement your clips now and again but there's not much work out there, especially for a college kid who might not have a ton of clips and it has to be something very close to you.

    Internships are a great way to get some extra published clips, even the unpaid ones. There's very few paid internships in journalism right now. Be aware though that most schools will also require you to pay the credit fee for any internship you get. I took an unpaid in school and it set me back another 3,000 to get 3 credits for it, but it was a great experience. (I got it through ASNE, for the record). If you're at a bigger paper, it's unlikely you'll get that much writing, you'll be doing background and some smaller wire rewriting work.

    Consider all your options, though, and send a lot of applications. I ended up working at a smaller paper over the summer and was able to do 2-3 features a week under a great editing staff that let me work on my own quite a bit. I had to do some heavy lifting as any intern does but it was worth the extra freedom I got in writing stories I wanted to write.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page