When I started, I knew I was already going to be out of pocket. My train fare exceeded what I would get back from the magazine’s “London travel expenses only” policy. So I was actually paying £10 a day to come in and work. More fool me perhaps, but I thought experience at a national title would be worth the £300 + hit to my bank account.
The interns there had a number of time-consuming but important jobs. The dullest was uploading agency content to the NS website from someone in India who aggregated the contents of the main newspapers as they went live at 12-1am. This job took three editorial interns between 3-4 hours a day to do. It was drudgework. So a number of the articles on the NS website are there for next to nothing, because they pay an Indian a paltry wage to generate the words, which are pilfered from work done by another newspaper, then uploaded for free by an unpaid intern. All this from a left-wing magazine, which frequently calls for social justice, and rails against the iniquities of globalisation.
On I think five occasions I was made to come in at 6am in order to prepare the daily mail shot to subscribers, comprising a daily digest of articles. Again, no byline, no real supervision, but it was a necessary job and it required time, all to the benefit of the business.
Another task was transcription. All interviews while I was there were transcribed by editorial interns. Typing at a fair clip an interview might take an hour or two to get down. Of course, only a tiny fraction of the interview would be used in published copy. But given the resource was free it’s certainly a luxury for a journalist to have a pool of amanuenses to hand.
More generally, the experience itself was a bit of shambles from the first day, with no proper introductions, tour etc. The overriding impression is of a conveyor belt of free labour, doing all the churn work, so paid editorial staff can get on with producing the print copy.
And at the end no exit interview, no feedback, no tips for the future, just a “thanks, bye” and an offer that if I wanted to submit articles, they might publish them online - (again unpaid). It took around six weeks and several rounds of chasing to get my (partial) expenses reimbursed.
But it wasn’t all bad. Editorial interns were invited to the main weekly editorial meeting. We also got to post an occasional article with a byline (online). If you get a full-time job there, the NS seems like a great place to work. The team are generally very friendly, and happy to take a couple of minutes to talk something through. But that’s about it.
My six weeks there were enough to put me off doing any further work experience. Handing more of my own money (and time) over to another media business to help keep them afloat is untenable and manifestly unfair.
I have no doubt that the NS is to a large extent financially reliant on interns. My estimate from having talked to other interns is that around 1/3 of the editorial staff at any one time are unpaid. Not only do they readily do all the necessary drudgework, they help to depress the wages of paid journalists there. In the end only a small fraction of interns get a job.
How can the management of a publication with the New Statesman’s pedigree defend what they are doing? I can’t think of a better media organization to take a lead and start paying interns, or provide them with a sufficiently useful learning experience that they don’t have to.
Satya Mitra Dubey( Satya Dubey)India, Retired Professor of Sociology
Interesting and absorbing writeup.Presents an inside story of the working conditions of interns in an internationaly known magzine which is read and appreciated by me also.
So, the staggers is full of hypocrites as well .
Why is that not a surprise to many?
If some one desires to be updated with latest technologies then he must be pay a quick visit this web site
and be up to date every day.
Fantastic web site. A lot of helpful information here. I am sending it to a few buddies ans additionally sharing in delicious.
And obviously, thanks in your effort!
Neat blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A theme like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog shine.
Please let me know where you got your design. Appreciate it
I was recommended this website by my cousin. I am not sure whether this post is written by him as no one
else know such detailed about my difficulty. You’re amazing! Thanks!
I’m gone to convey my little brother, that he should also go to see this weblog on regular basis to take updated from hottest news update.
Hello There. I discovered your blog using msn.
This is a very smartly written article. I will make sure to bookmark it
and come back to read extra of your helpful info.
Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.
This page truly has all the information I needed concerning this subject and didn’t know who to ask.
Hi there, everything is going nicely here and ofcourse every one
is sharing data, that’s in fact fine, keep up writing.
These are actually great ideas in on the topic of blogging.
You have touched some good things here. Any way keep up wrinting.
It’s really a cool and helpful piece of info. I’m
happy that you just shared this helpful info with us.
Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
I’m really impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one these days.
hello!,I really like your writing very a lot! percentage we communicate extra about
your post on AOL? I require a specialist on this area to solve my problem.
May be that is you! Looking ahead to peer you.
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your website. It’s a very easy on the
eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often.
Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Superb work!
This article provides clear idea for the new users of blogging, that really
how to do blogging.
Hi, its good post regarding media print, we all understand media is a great source of information.
I am regular reader, how are you everybody? This article posted at this website is truly
good.
You actually make it appear so easy along with your presentation however I in finding
this topic to be actually one thing which I believe I’d never understand. It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me. I’m taking a
look ahead on your next post, I will attempt to get the hold of it!
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several
emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that
service? Cheers!
Good day! This post could not be written any better!
Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate!
He always kept talking about this. I will forward this write-up to him.
Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
I really like reading through an article that will make people
think. Also, many thanks for allowing for me to comment!
What’s up, after reading this amazing article i am as well cheerful to share my experience here with mates.