TAKEAWAY: Media internships are in jeopardy at large publishers, but they should not disappear. As someone who has been both an intern and hired interns, I know how important they are to our industry.
I am disappointed to read about internships and what may happen to them in David Carr’s column for The New York Times, “Overlook the Value of Interns at Great Peril.” It is a subject dear to me, and to my own experience, both as an intern and as a hirer of interns.
In a nutshell: the idea of internships is in jeopardy and many internships may disappear completely.
Carr writes,
Unpaid internships, which are to the publishing business what the mailroom was to Hollywood studios, are under broad attack. Both Hearst Magazines and Condé Nast have been sued by former interns who assert that they performed a great deal of work for little or no money. Hearst, which has vigorously defended itself in court, is contemplating dumping internships, and Women’s Wear Daily revealed last month that Condé Nast would no longer provide internships.
It would be a big mistake to abandon internships all together.
It would eliminate opportunity for thousands, and also the possibility of discovering talent for employers.
I know. I have been on both the giving and receiving end of internships.
My own internship
I was 19 years old and a sophomore at Miami Dade College when my journalism professor, Barbara Garfunkel, recommended me for an internship with The Miami News.
I was accepted, and the summer of 1967 became one of the best times of my life, and the one that convinced me that I wanted to work with newspapers, with design, in a newsroom.
Bringing on an intern
Second, my hiring of a special intern: Reed Reibstein.
When I visited the Yale University campus in 2008, Reed was a freshman working on the staff of the Yale Daily News. I immediately recognized his talent and special talent for typography and design and asked him to be our summer intern. That internship led to my asking him to stay on as a “year round” intern during the academic year. Reed returned each summer as an intern until he graduated, and joined us full time as Garcia Media art director & project manager. A win-win situation for both of us.
That’s the best evidence I have to convince those considering not having more interns that a few isolated cases where things went wrong should not make us abandon one of the best tools we have for discovering and nurturing talent in every profession.
There may always be those inconsiderate bosses who use interns to retrieve their dry cleaning or to bring them coffee, but the vast majority see interns as what they are: an incredibly valuable source of talent waiting to be nurtured and inspired.
The rules for treating interns right are simpler than some of the recent literature make it look
1. Establish a pay scale that is acceptable to all. I do not believe in free internships. Even a minor stipend establishes a professional relationship based on the reality of what the working world is all about.
2. Establish early on what the goals of the internship are and what the intern should achieve during his or her time at the organization.
3. Allow for mentoring as part of the internship. We all have had a mentor that shaped part or most of our careers. It is satisfying to do this for the next generation. But mentoring takes time and effort, and it should be part of the planned internship schedule.
