Intern Inferno - journalists in training wage standards - Brief Article

Writers and editors (and we can say this with some degree of experience) are prone to being combative and opinionated, but no one could predict the firestorm that erupted on Jim Romenesko's MediaNews, a trade Web site for the news industry, when they reported on interns at Harper's wanting to get paid.

"When I interned at Harper's in 1994," wrote one former intern, "the interns sent a letter to publisher Rick MacArthur asking for a $10-per-day stipend. Rick replied, somewhat glibly if I recall, that the company did not have the money to fund the stipend, which would have cost the magazine about 10 grand annually. He wished it did, because a stipend might mean that more minorities would be able to take the job. 'Rick's attended parties that cost 10 grand,' an editor pointed out later. I also saw 10 grand in kill fees, $7,000 of which was for a single story about Alaska, if I recall. So the money is there if the will is, but it isn't."

The online argument that erupted was at points informative, at points belligerent, and contained much food for thought for any company, in any field, looking to use interns--paid or otherwise.

"I would never," says David Parker, the publisher of a small-town weekly newspaper in Illinois, "ever, use unpaid interns at my newspapers. I would pay interns the same kind of living salary as I would a full-time employee. Small town publishers who use unpaid interns--and there are many--use them solely as a source of cheap labor while the owners of the newspapers rake in 25 to 35 percent profit margins. It's time to put an end to using unpaid interns. It's morally wrong."

Others don't agree, pointing out that, in many cases, the interns are gaining valuable life experience, professional contacts, and--most important--college credit. One idea that was quickly debunked was that interns couldn't legally be paid as little as $10 a day because paying them at all would subject them to minimum-wage laws.

"Companies that run purely instructional internships--those that do not contribute to the businesses' output or that students do for course credit-don't have to pay interns;' one poster corrected. "The companies, however, are free to pay them if they choose. (Hey, it's a free country.) If 'interns' are doing real work, then minimum-wage laws would apply."

Some argue that internships in general are antiquated, particularly in a job market where nearly any kid fresh out of college can get work. Thomas Nord, a Kentucky-based journalist, would disagree.

"The internships I had, from that first nonpaying one to that lucrative $200-per-week deal, were all very useful. And, yes, extremely monotonous at times and sometimes humiliating. But gee whiz, it's called paying dues. For the vast majority of us, you gotta start somewhere. With so many grads jumping right from college to this dot-coin or that one, perhaps the idea of paying dues is hopelessly antiquated. I hope not, I rather like the idea of snotty, know-it-all college kids (for example, myself circa 1988) being taken down a notch or two by a gruff but unlovable city editor."

Former interns-other than the one above-said that getting to hobnob with top-flight journalists and best-selling novelists was a career perk that far outweighed the lack of pay, which indicates the best advice to companies seeking unpaid interns: make sure they're getting something from you that they can't get on their own. Answering phones for free is hardly alluring to college kids who can get work-paid work--easily. Opportunities for unique and rewarding work experiences, however, just might do the trick.

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