Are journalism interns faring the cutback climate?

Posted by Jennifer Lush on November 6, 2009 at 12:42 PM

The news industry is being forced to navigate some rough weather with numbers of cutbacks and closures seeming to increase each week amidst growing financial pressure. In the dismal climate, one thing many publications have made cuts on it the budget for interns, reports Editor & Publisher, reducing the numbers they take on and in some cases removing programs altogether.

"It was either staff or interns," said Julie Engebrecht, The Cincinnati Enquirer's director of news. Her paper has not to take on any interns for the past five years, previously hiring up to twelve paid interns per year. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram also cut its four to five paid intern slots this year, a move that executive editor Jim Witt blames on budget cutbacks.

The cutbacks haven't just affected internship programs in the US, with Guardian News Media also deciding not to run it's Guardian Training Scheme in 2009/10. The scheme had attracted an annual salary of up to £25,000, including six weeks paid holiday.

Linda Waterborg, a senior journalism student at the University of Missouri, experienced the impact firsthand. Waterborg had secured a summer design and copy-editing internship at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but soon after received an e-mail had to cut it's program and could no longer offer her the position.

Many newspapers that have chosen to keep their programs have instead decided to cut back on intern salaries, switching to an unpaid or credits system. Heather Johanning, director of human resources at the Topeka Capital-Journal, said the paper brought on four or five interns for the summer of 2009, a number equal to previous years, but for the last three years the interns employed weren't paid.

Whilst newspapers believe the experience their programs offer interns are worthwile, many students find it financially difficult to take on. "If I took an unpaid internship I would have to get a part-time job," explains University of Missouri senior Roseann Moring, a journalism major.

Moring was lucky enough to get two paid internships this year- one with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and another with Omaha World-Herald- though she said that many of her fellow students weren't so fortunate: "I had some friends who were qualified who didn't get an internship and probably would have in previous years."

Nevertheless, some newspapers insist on the imporatnce of internships, and in an effort to keep their programs have sought extra funds from organisations and universities to be able to pay students salaries. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is one such paper and has sought alliances with with Kaiser Media, the Collegiate Network and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

"We always make sure our interns are paid, whether through us or another organization," says Irvin Harrell, the paper's director of community outreach and newsroom recruitment.

The news comes in the midst of a general questioning of the value of journalism studies in an industry that is suffering. As technology, the Internet and social networking sites boom, citizens have all the tools needed to produce news, fast making it tougher for professionals to justify their relevance. Despite the problems plaguing the industry, however, there has actually been an suprising increase in the number of applications to journalism schools. The numbers are a promising sign that the news is not dying- just undergoing a radical makeover.

Source: Editor & Publisher