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:
  • A bike path planned for Mount Royal
  • A (shared) front-page byline about the city’s transportation plan
  • Province must return student loan interest
• Giuseppe Valiante (like me, a former Linkie):
  • Religious leaders praise Bouchard-Taylor report
  • Campaign to ban smoking in cars
  • Street gang members rounded up in raids
• Christopher Maughan:
  • Fast-food joints lurk near schools (updated link)
  • Dead people under Dorchester Square
• Brett Bundale:
  • Montreal Heart Institute celebrates 40th anniversary of its first heart transplant (updated link)
  • Helping the homeless get off the street
  • Roadsworth returns (with a permit)

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.