California Magazine Seeks Editorial Interns for Fall 2025

Are you enthusiastic about getting coffee?! Running errands?! Doing senseless busy work for no pay that won’t help your career in the future?!

That’s great! But do it on your own time, because it won’t happen when you’re a California magazine intern.

California magazine is seeking UC Berkeley students (graduate or undergraduate) to intern at our award-winning print publication, general-interest website starting in early September 2025. We’re a general-interest magazine (print + digital + podcast) covering the people, ideas, and discoveries coming out of the University of California, Berkeley.

Interns will leave with clips and experience that will set them up for a career in journalism. Some of our past interns have gone on to write for publications such as the New York Times, L.A. Times, Mother Jones, Buzzfeed, Wired.com, and Nature.

As an intern, it’ll be your job to stay true to this mission whilst hunting down stories, juggling hectic deadlines, and otherwise writing your journalism-loving heart out!

Responsibilities

• Pitch, research and write stories for both the print and online mag
• Interview sources, ask tough questions, be a bonafide professional reporter
• Assist with research, scripting, and production of our podcast, The Edge
• Track down images/artwork and obtain permissions for them (and, if you’ve got the skills, shoot photos and make some artwork yourself)
• Fact-check stories (call sources, track down documents and facts like a bloodhound)
• Edit and proof pages (sharpen those copy-editing skills)
• Write headlines and story descriptions for print and online
• Post stories to social media
• Attend weekly editorial meetings to pitch stories and shoot the breeze with your new favorite editors
• Learn writing fundamentals, tips, and tricks of the trade from California mag’s finest
• Have fun!

Qualifications

We don’t expect you to be a fully formed journalist with 12 Pulitzers and a personal connection to Bob Woodward. You’re here to become great, not show off how great you already are. But we are looking for a UC Berkeley student (grad or undergrad) who has:

• A strong sense of humor
• A proven ability to report and write accurately, smartly, and clearly
• Some basic social media knowhow (Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram—Threads if you’re wild)
• Basic photo-editing skills (Photoshop is a plus)
• Curiosity, critical thinking, and the ability to listen as well as you write
• A self-starter spirit with a collaborative soul
• An unshakable love for storytelling and a desire to get better at it every day

The Fine Print (a.k.a. Money Stuff)

The internship is hybrid and part-time (~15hrs/wk). It lasts three months, from early September to December 2025. We pay $20/hour. If applicable (meaning that we think you do a great job and you like it here), there’s a possibility for the internship to be extended for another three months.

If all of this sounds like your kind of thing…

To Apply

No phone calls, please! Send your résumé, a brief cover letter, and a writing sample (published or not—we just want to see how you write) to [email protected] with “editorial intern” in the subject line by Monday, August 4, 2025.

We look forward to your application and can’t wait to see what kind of goodies you bring to the party. Don’t worry. We’ll cover the dip!