Monday, October 13, 2008

Philly Inquirer Tosses Paid Internships, Asks J-Schools to Foot Bill

Yep, you read the headline correctly: the Philadelphia Inquirer says it can't pay the wages of the handful of interns from which the paper happily accepts work:

"The Inquirer has decided it can no longer afford to pay interns–but union contracts also don’t allow the newspaper to let interns work without being paid.

The Inquirer now is asking journalism schools to pay the newspaper a stipend to support the internships. Each school that agrees to do so will have one guaranteed internship."

"UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication won’t be participating in the Inquirer’s program."

To which j-schools are responding, "thanks, but no thanks. We'll take our impoverished graduates elsewhere, thank you." Journalists 1, Philadelphia Inquirer 0.

3 comments:

Travis Mason-Bushman said...

Wow. I can't quite figure what they're thinking - it's not as if j-school budgets are overflowing with more money than they know what to do with. Do they honestly believe this scheme is going to work?

Anonymous said...

Great site. Enjoy what I have read thus far. Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

I believe this is a legitimate request by the Inquirer in light of the newspaper's diminished revenues. As a parent currently dealing with college tuition costs, I would much rather see some of those funds going to helping fund internships than building expansions and real estate acquisitions. Parents and students really have no alternative but to "pay or leave" when it comes to tuition demands.