This is basically a re-post of a re-post that I’ve posted for the last couple of years. The reason for all of this repetition is simple: We’re looking for a few talented interns to join our team at the Greenspun Newsroom for the summer and even through next spring.
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The Las Vegas Sun and the converged newsroom at Greenspun Media Group are looking for interns who want to get real-world, practical experience with coverage of local news and business, and entertainment (yes, that very well could mean The Strip, the celebrity side of Las Vegas and our city’s crazy club scene).
What does that really mean?
It means we’re looking for at least a couple of people to help with development and research for enterprise and investigative stories for the Las Vegas Sun, the news and sports side of lasvegassun.com, as well as all of the cool things happening over on lasvegasweekly.com. And if an amazing/hard-working visual journalist or programmer applied, well, we would have to consider finding someone like that a position.
We want solid journalists who can write their backsides off and who aren’t afraid of multimedia or working directly with a fairly sophisticated online content management system (or CMS, as the kids love to call this sort of software).
Solid grammar knowledge and writing skills are a must. The selected interns must be effective communicators on the phone and in person and be able to conduct interviews, research and write stories with minimal supervision. They must be receptive to editing and coaching and be able to take instruction when working in collaboration with full-time staff members.
Above all else, the students or recent graduates will demonstrate maturity and critical-thinking skills, show exuberance toward the career of journalism, and embrace its values of accuracy and fairness.
These are “fiber-cyber” internships, with equal focus on the analytical journalism featured in the Sun print edition, the breaking news featured on lasvegassun.com and the local-lifestyle journalism that makes up Las Vegas Weekly and lasvegasweekly.com.
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Here are some answers to a few basic questions about these internships:
* How long do these internships last? A minimum of roughly three months and up to nine months.
* Are they paid internships? Yes. But just barely. You aren’t going to get rich. But you’ll definitely be able to get by.
* Am I going to fetch coffee? No.
* Am I going to have to do some data-entry? Yes, just like the full-timers on our staff have to do. And if you get the internship focused on the Sun’s enterprise journalism, this sort of work will definitely be a part of your weekly routine.
* Am I going to work harder than I ever have at any other point in my life? Likely. Unless you’re from Kansas, and then it will be basically what you’re already used to. 🙂
* What skills do I need? You need to be able to write your tailfeathers off, and generally be the most self-motivated student in your J-school. We want to hear from applicants who have taken the initiative to learn more — even if that “more†only consists of basic audio-editing skills, basic video-editing skills, basic HTML knowledge, at least some knowledge of Internet journalism, maintaining a blog, etc.
During our intern interviews, we always hear something like this: “I can write, but I don’t really know anything about Web journalism. I really think this internship would help teach me those skills.â€
Well, teaching new skills is wonderful and we love to do it, but in this era, we want students who have learned (and in many cases, taught themselves) at least some skills related to new-media journalism. If all you can do is write — which is a hugely important skill to our team — then you probably aren’t interested enough in the type of journalism that we practice at the Las Vegas Sun, lasvegassun.com and lasvegasweekly.com to have learned other things needed to be a part of our news organization.
And you probably aren’t the kind of self-motivated student we’re looking for.
* Am I going to use a real content management system, work with multimedia, as well as do a bunch of other nerdy news things that will likely make me the most employable member of my graduating class? Definitely.
* Do I need a car? Yes. Your work will take you all around the Las Vegas Valley, and our community’s public transportation isn’t going to be enough to get you where you will need to go.
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To apply, please click here.
Rob Curley 