This week is New Intern week at work, when the newsroom is swarmed by snot-nosed idiot kids eager young journalists beginning their careers with a summer stint at the paper, replacing the veterans who get to use their vacation time. There are four reporting interns, a copy editing intern (who started two weeks ago), an online intern, a photo intern and a design intern (the latter two will start within the next few weeks).
The reporters get the most attention though. In only a few days they’ve all already gotten their first bylines, in stories published in Wednesday and Thursday editions (UPDATE: I’ve added more features they’ve gotten in through the weekend):
- Julia Kilpatrick:
- Giuseppe Valiante (like me, a former Linkie):
- Christopher Maughan:
- Brett Bundale:
The reporting and editing interns almost always come from Carleton and Concordia universities, due to the requirements that they know something about Montreal and they be able to converse in French. No exceptions here.
Place your bets now on which one of these will move on to reporting for Maclean’s/Globe and Mail/Time Magazine/New York Times, which will spend the rest of their lives in community newspaper obscurity, and which will eventually decide that PR/NGO work/selling crack is more rewarding and pays better.
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McGill students never get in?
McGill doesn’t have a journalism department, so it’s pretty rare that it happens.
And following up on Guillaume’s point: Why no one from the French universities?
I can only guess really, but:
- the French papers pay more, and there are more of them
- the internship isn’t advertised to the French universities
- it’s still an anglo job, even if it requires functional French
- the SSJB won’t allow them to apply
How much do the internships pay?
I don’t have the exact figures in front of me, but according to the contract, they’re paid 80% of a regular starting salary, which works out to about $20 an hour, times 35 hours a week, times about 15 weeks.
Better than most internships, but you’re expected to work hard.
So typical. I started out at a community newspaper in NS, and moved on to PR and NGOs. Hmm.
What was that you said about crack?
A little late here, but to respond to Guillaume: yes, there have been a few McGill interns. I was one of them. And a quick look at The McGill Daily’s About Us page will reveal a few others:
Mike Boone, Montreal Gazette columnist
Josh Freed, Montreal Gazette columnist
Irwin Block, Montreal Gazette reporter
Linda Gyulai, Montreal Gazette reporter
Mark Lepage, Montreal Gazette reporter
Charles Shannon, Montreal Gazette editor
Andrew Phillips, editor-in-chief, The Montreal Gazette
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/aboutus
could someone please post the link for this upcoming year’s application page?
Thank you.
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