NOTE: Applications are now closed.
Summer’s coming, and we’re looking for interns to spend a week or two with us here at The Spectator. We’re looking for people who love good journalism and understand how digital media works. The position will be paid (but not very much). We don’t mind where or whether you have gone to university; Frank Johnson was a superb editor of this magazine and he left school aged 16 (as have some of our editors). What matters is flair, imagination and enthusiasm: skills that you can’t really learn in any classroom.
We’re not looking for writers, per se: The Spectator is blessed with a large number of brilliant freelance writers whose skills we can call on. At 22 Old Queen Street, we commission, edit and do our best to make digital sparks fly. If you write well but can’t edit an audio file or make short video (or work out how to) then this internship is probably not for you.
So don’t send a CV: your education doesn’t matter. All that matters in journalism is whether you can do it. A few paragraphs telling us about you, and detailing any relevant experience*, will be fine.
To enter, do two or more of the following tasks, one of which must be audio or video:
- Using Audacity, narrate and compile your own three-minute summary of any Prime Minister’s Questions (with clips) and send the MP3 file.
- Produce a two-minute video elaborating on a Spectator article.
- Prepare a sample 200-300 word blog offering something new on a topic of your choice for the Spectator’s Coffee House blog.
- Suggest three topics (and suitable guests) for The Spectator Podcast.
- Choose one of our published magazine articles, and work out the best way to promote it on the website, Twitter, Facebook and beyond.
Last year, we had a lot of applications, so we’ve set the bar slightly higher this year. If you are interested, email jobs@spectator.co.uk with ‘INTERNSHIP’ in the subject field. Include a short pitch as to why you’d like to intern at The Spectator and attach the tasks above.
And one final thing: this isn’t a scam to get some underpaid envelope-stuffers. We take this seriously because this is how we recruit. So please don’t apply if you have more than two years of full-time education ahead of you. We do run work experience for school pupils, through the Social Mobility Foundation, so those interested can apply through them. (I can recommend SMF to other employers: they send great, interested and talented kids and we’ve hired two of their alumni so far.)
We don’t have any vacancies right now, but when we do, we look back over our interns and invite the best ones back. We do offer training on the job, and remedial training for PPE graduates.
The deadline for applications is Friday 22nd April.
* The only education reference you’re allowed to make is to a journalism postgraduate course (i.e., if you’re on one, applying to one, etc). This is relevant not because they teach you very much but because it demonstrates commitment. Anyone vaguely interested in journalism will need a lot of that.
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