How to Prepare Yourself for a Newspaper Internship

You've just landed yourself an internship with a newspaper and couldn't be more excited. Why? Because you're a blossoming journalist--a young writer, editor, or photographer--with media oriented dreams for your future. But as excited as you are, you're also nervous and perhaps even scared. This is probably your first internship with a newspaper, perhaps your first internship period, and you're not sure what to do. Big-time journalists intimidate you and you're afraid that you'll come across as incompetent, lazy, and simply unfit for a career with newspapers. Don't worry. Your feelings are normal but that doesn't mean you can't overcome them. Get ready to score a possible byline and network with important contacts for your post-graduation days. Here are tips for preparing yourself for a newspaper internship:

Understand your responsibilities: Regardless of what type of internship you have and what kind of job you ultimately get in the future, understanding what's expected of you is always important. Some employers insist on sparing the details until the first day of the internship but try to discover as much as you can in advance. Will you write full-fledged articles or photo captions? Are you taking photographs? Do you have to update the newspaper website? Are you in charge of lay-out? Find out what you have to do and then brush up on the appropriate skills. Chances are you will learn a lot on the job but if you can play around with a digital camera, study an AP Style manual, or fiddle with Adobe Photoshop and InDesign in advance, you'll definitely have an edge.

Read several newspapers with different focuses on a regular basis: No two newspaper titles are created equal. They have their differences and it's your job, as a young journalist, to note those differences and ask why they exist. Some newspapers have a liberal bias while others are more conservative. Anyone who's read The Washington Post and The Washington Times, for example, will note the liberal slant of the former and more conservative slant of the latter. Certain newspapers cater to minorities or different religious or socio-economic groups. Some newspapers are all color while others are entirely black and white. You'll also see that some newspapers are full of graphics and others are full of text. Ask how all of these factors affect the way each newspaper presents information and decide what you like and dislike about each title.

Monitor other forms of news media: Watch the news on television, listen to the radio and Podcasts, read news-oriented blogs, and check out news magazines. In this day and age, all forms of media are converging, mainly on the Internet, where you can find audio, video, still images, and text all in one place. Think about the advantages and disadvantages of each form of news media and whether or not you'll be working with one of these forms at your internship. Some newspaper websites feature video content, for example. If you will work with one of those forms, try to read up about it so you have basic background information about it before you even start your internship.

Study newspaper websites: Newspapers will inevitably move to the Internet. In fact, if you haven't noticed, many of them already have. Whether you like this transition or not hardly matters. This is a change that journalists and readers alike must come to accept thanks to the nature of our "Gimme now!" society where people expect updates in real time. Your internship may be print-based or it may be web-based; perhaps you will have the chance to experience both. Even if you're only working on the print end and even if your newspaper doesn't have a web component, you should check out newspaper websites. It's likely that if you stay in the newspaper business, you'll write for a website one day instead of a paper product. Ask how online newspapers compare to print newspapers and list the pros and cons of each form. Also try to familiarize yourself with producing online content. Learn how online publishing works and try to learn a little HTML. You can start publishing some of your writing or photography for pay at www.associatedcontent.com.

Make sure you have the appropriate wardrobe: It used to be that virtually all newspaper offices required formal dress. For both men and women, that meant suits and polished shoes. In certain offices, that remains true today. In others, however, particularly those of small local weeklies and alternative papers, you can easily get away with jeans and a T-shirt; looking washed isn't even necessarily a prerequisite. You can generally tell at the job interview what the office atmosphere is like. If not, feel free to ask your supervisor what you should wear. Keep in mind, though, that even if the office atmosphere is super-casual, you should do your best to look presentable. You are, after all, the intern. You don't have the job yet so dress to impress. If you go for the jeans and T-shirt, keep the jeans on the darker, more conservative side and the T-shirts should probably come in solid colors or stripes. No vulgarities or obscenities.