CUT COSTS BY EXPLOITING JOURNALISM GRADUATES, HE IS ORDERED
*GRADUATE FOG EXCLUSIVE!*
The deputy editor of a top lifestyle magazine (you’ve definitely heard of it), has told Graduate Fog that he has been “told by management to take on interns who will work for free” in order to cut the costs of producing editorial content.
The shocking admission came during an exclusive interview designed to gain advice and insight for graduates trying to break into the competitive world of journalism. But as well as providing lots of useful tips for young journalists, he admitted that he had been pressured by senior managers to hire unpaid interns simply to cut costs. The editor – who himself worked unpaid at the start of his career – made clear that he was uncomfortable with the situation and felt it was a sign of the times, saying:
“The sad truth of the industry is, we’re understaffed but more staff costs money so we’re told by management to take on interns who’ll work for free.
“I have friends on magazines where there are six full-time staff and three interns. When a third of the editorial team are unpaid it’s a sign that margins are tight. Magazines (online or otherwise) are clearly now expecting people to write for them without payment.
“Then they spend their days transcribing interviews or returning things from shoots — helpful to us but not exactly useful to them, other than getting the name of an international magazine on their CV.”
Graduate Fog has known for many years that journalism is one of the worst offenders – along with fashion and politics – when it comes to exploiting interns. However, we had always assumed that this exploitation was somewhat casual – keen graduates send their CVs and editors let them come and work in the office. But this editor’s comments suggest something darker and more organised. Now, it seems that senior (well-paid) managers are giving explicit orders to senior editorial staff to deliberately take advantage of young jobseekers in order to cut costs. Is this a new low for an industry that’s already on its knees?
*HOW ORGANISED IS JOURNALISM’S EXPLOITATION OF ITS INTERNS?
Have you interned unpaid for a magazine, newspaper or website? What was the set-up? Are you surprised to hear that the orders to take on unpaid interns comes from management – or have you always suspected this was the case?
I worked unpaid as part of a Masters program, and yes, I do believe many publications hire either unpaid or very low paid interns not in order to teach them, seek out new talent or provide experience, but to try to be more productive than their budget allows.
of course media companies are going to do this, every business is going to try and save a little bit of money any way they can, and there is lots of unemployed graduates that want a job, but jobs want experience so if they can do a small internship and this gives an graduate work experience then some will do it.
i want a law that bans all internships with out NMW
I remember being sent on an “Aim Higher” day by my school to get us to aspire to university. We’ve been sold one massive massive lie haven’t we?
there are laws that restrict when interns can and can’t be paid. if someone were to put a complaint in with the Department of Labor via online, there could be an investigation that could change the industry ‘rules’ and attitude when a company must pay $100k in back wages and penalties.
@twinograd
We’re talking primarily about UK internships chief. The Department of Labor and Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t apply here.
Sort of ironic that this article takes several swings at journalism but uses a tabloid-level sensationalist tone of voice to ‘reveal’ something that anyone with a passing form of intelligent reasoning already knows: people get told to cut costs. But to say it’s the entire industry is moronic.
The Hollywood Reporter-esque OTT writing style and the particular anger concerning the industry comes close to perhaps suggesting that there’s someone here who didn’t make it into journalism themselves.
I came up through the magazine world without a single internship, by the way, and of the multiple mags I worked on, none were offering unpaid internships – all were paid for.
So maybe taking one ***EXCLUSIVE!!!**** interview as a sample group for deciding that the entire of journalism is taking advantage of unpaid interns might be a little much.
And maybe make it more about the right reasons to fight this – of which there are many – and less about glory-seeking crusades, too.
Cheers.