California magazine is seeking part-time interns to work on our award-winning quarterly print publication and general interest website starting in late August/early September of 2021.
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.
Some might say we have a revolutionary perspective that an internship shouldn’t be a waste of time, that interns should do work that excites them, and that they should leave with clips and experience that will set them up for a career in journalism. And we’d like to think it works! Some of our past interns have gone on to write for such publications as the New York Times, L.A. Times, Mother Jones, Buzzfeed, Wired.com, and Nature. That could be you someday. We want it to be you someday.
California is an editorially independent general interest mag that covers the news, issues, discoveries, and people of the University of California, Berkeley. The print magazine is published four times a year with a readership of 95,000, and the website posts fresh news every week, including monthly episodes of our new podcast, The Edge.
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!
WHAT YOU’LL DO:
- 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
- Go out into the field to find stories worth writing about
- Post finished pieces to the website using Drupal CMS
- Transcribe interviews
- 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, be ruthless in your pursuit of truth)
- Edit and proof pages (sharpen those copy-editing skills)
- Write headlines and story descriptions for print and online
- Post stories to social media with catchy subtitles to pull readers in
- 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:
A lot of publications ask for a wide range of experience from their interns—requiring them to have written for a thousand magazines, boast 40 college degrees in different disciplines, be perfect in every way, etc. But we understand that you wouldn’t need an internship if you were a seasoned journalist, so we aren’t looking for Christiane Amanpour or William F. Buckley Jr. (Honestly, we wouldn’t even know what do with ourselves if they actually applied. They have too much experience. And one of them is supposed to be dead!) That said, there are some things you must have to work for us:
- A sense of humor: We take our journalism very seriously, but usually not ourselves. It’s wisecracks galore up in the California mag office. We joke. We make puns. We quip it—and quip it good. Come prepared to banter with the best of ‘em!
- Proven ability to report and write things accurately, smartly, and concisely
- Basic knowledge of HTML
- Some social media knowhow (working knowledge of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
- Basic photo editing skills (knowledge of Adobe Photoshop is a plus)
- The talent to think critically and listen effectively
- The ability to work cooperatively and independently (We’re here to guide you, but we also like to let our interns learn some things on the fly, and on their own)
- A burning desire to master the magical art of journalism!
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY! MONEY! (sung in the tune of the O’Jays):
The internship is part-time (~20hrs/wk) and lasts three months with a monthly stipend of $530. 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…
APPLY:
But no phone calls, please! Send your resume, cover letter, and three non-academic writing samples by email to californiamag@alumni.berkeley.edu with “editorial intern” in the subject. The samples don’t need to be published, but we ask that at least one of them demonstrate journalistic ability (research and reporting skills).
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!