Kali’s on the Job at The Wall Street Journal: Four Weeks Down…and the Beat Goes On

Kali Geldis of Depauw University flashes a smile at the start of her shift as a DJNF/Temple editing intern in The Wall Street Journal’s South Brunswick, New Jersey, news room. Kali’s presence echoes in some ways the long-term contributions of the late Bernard Kilgore, former editor and chief executive of The Journal. . .and a Depauw alumnus. . .who did so much in terms of laying the foundations for a great deal of what are Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal of today. Barney Kilgore joined The Journal in l932. At his passing in l967, he was chairman of Dow Jones and Company. In l958, 50 years ago, Mr. Kilgore founded The Newspaper Fund, Inc., a program to develop journalism talent primarily from liberal arts colleges and universities. The Fund also was set up to encourage the teaching of journalism in high schools. Accordingly, there has been considerable emphasis on teacher training through Fund-sponsored summer journalism workshops at colleges and universities across the United States. The Dow Jones buildings in South Brunswick are collectively known as being on the Kilgore Campus. The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, Inc., has its offices at this location. Photo by Mary Knowles Tindall of the University of Central Florida, another DJNF/Temple editing intern at The Wall Street Journal.

‘Intern or Die’ Part Two: A Former DJNF Editing Intern Responds

Brian White is a Temple alumnus (2005) and a former DJNF editing intern who attended the University of North Carolina residency prior to a summer on the copy desk(s) of the Detroit Free Press. While at Temple he was in the honors program and edited the student newspaper, The Temple News. In addition to his internship in Detroit, Brian also had a reporting internship at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. He is a sports copy editor at The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky. While at Temple, he was a program assistant in the DJNF/Temple editing residency. Following is his posted response, one of dozens, to a recently published/posted article from The New Republic titled “Intern or Die” by Adelle Waldman. This piece was featured here in the previous blog entry.

I think this article is a bit off the mark as it comes to newspapers, at least in terms of who can intern where. My family couldn’t have afforded to support me on an unpaid or minimum-wage internship in another city all summer when I was in college (Temple University 2001-05). And they didn’t have to. Both of my internships (at the St. Pete Times and, yes, Joe Grimm’s Free Press) paid me well above minimum wage, and I was able to afford rent (in decent apartments), groceries and gas while even saving some money. They also paid my travel expenses getting to and from the cities at the beginning and end of the summer. Many of my friends at the Temple News had the same experience at papers around the country. This isn’t to say there are papers that pay badly and won’t pay your expenses, but most seem to do OK. Also, most everyone I know who is now working professionally got started at their college paper, not their high school paper. As to the rest, a lot of it is true, in my experience at least. Working your way up through the small papers or getting hired from your internship is often the norm. (Though I’m not at either of my internship papers.) And it is absolutely true that papers want people with the internships, and the writing clips, that prove they’re the right sort of candidate. You’re not going to get hired at a major metro paper without major experience at a newspaper.

From The New Republic: Another Take on Interns, Internships and One Person’s View of Why They Might Not Be Good for Journalism

Adelle Waldman has written for The New York Times Book Review, The New York Observer, and The New York Sun. The article below was published and posted on The New Republic blog on Wednesday, June 25, 2008: Intern or Die: Why internships in journalism are bad for young people, and bad for the industry. The views expressed in no way reflect those of the Temple University Editing Residency blog nor The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, Inc. Comments are welcome regarding what Ms. Waldman has to say.

Beware the intern you just sent on a coffee run. And not just because
she may use the yellow sweetener instead of the pink. No, beware the
intern because as easy as it is to punk her around now, this
pleasure, like smoking or drinking, is likely to come back to bite
you later, when she rises to a position of power. Which is quite
likely, as one of the fundamental truths about post-millennial
working life is this: Ex-interns run the show. And like many banal
workforce realities, this one’s pernicious.

The field of journalism offers a prime example of the power of the
internship. At policy magazines like TNR, at glossies like Vanity
Fair and Vogue, and at daily newspapers and television news programs,
a couple months of grunt work for no or low pay is virtually a

Ashley and The AP: One Editing Intern’s Summer Training Schedule

Ashley Thomas of the University of Missouri is a DJNF/Temple editing intern at The Associated Press in New York City. Following is her training schedule for the summer of 2008. Ashley’s supervisor is Paula Froke, deputy national editor, a Penn State graduate and former DJNF/Temple editing intern assigned to The Associated Press.

TRAINING SCHEDULE

*The first few weeks have specific activities listed, while goals
and tasks for later weeks are not broken down. This reflects the fact
that the internship is flexible _ some targets will be reached faster
than expected, while some areas will require more work. Other goals
may present themselves as the summer progresses.

Besides what’s identified below, you’ll be working daily with
copy of varying quality, length and style. Reminder: The internship
will involve some weekend shifts. Those shifts will be posted no
later than the standard 16 days in advance.

WEEK 1, June 2-6 FOCUS: Comfort level GOALS: find your bearings;
pick up tools you’ll need for the summer; learn Workbench basics;
start editing for the a-wire.

The Eye of Eba: A Layered View with a Hint of NYT

Eba Hamid of Hampton University and one of four DJNF/Temple editing interns at The New York Times captured this interesting view of framed flags and just a hint of the NYT flag font. . .this time measured in feet rather than points. The shot was made during an orientation program in early June.

What a Difference a Month Makes: Midnight Madness at 1300 Cecil B. Moore

Just four weeks ago the DJNF/Temple editing interns were in the thick of almost two weeks of day and night study in preparation for their respective internships. Pictured below from left to right are: Jessica Lin of the University of North Carolina (The Wall Street Journal), Kali Geldis of Depauw University (The Wall Street Journal), Mary Knowles Tindall (The Wall Street Journal), and Sam Rubenfeld of Hofstra University (Dow Jones Newswires). Photo by Eba Hamid of Hampton University (The New York Times).

Summer Housing Hassles: Finding a Place to Live During One’s Internship

Mary Knowles Tindall of the University of Central Florida had more than the usual busy time at semester’s end and prior to coming to Temple for the residency part of her DJNF/Temple editing internship. She got her degree, got married, went on a honeymoon, then made the trip to Philadelphia for almost two weeks of intensive training. Then it was on to The Wall Street Journal news room in South Brunswick, New Jersey. One potential glitch in all of this? Mary had no place to stay. Here is her account of how things worked out.

Once you’re accepted to The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund’s copy-editing program, you have to start thinking about housing. For some people, like me, finding a place to stay is harder than for others. About a week before I came to Temple, my housing plans fell through, and since that week was my honeymoon, I arrived at Temple with two weeks to find a new place–two weeks that were supposed to be dedicated to hardcore studying.

Let me take this chance to discourage anyone from getting themselves in that scenario! I searched frantically on Craigslist and other online classifieds in our allotted daily computer time, e-mailing about 20 people in total, with no success.

Finally, I found four girls, students at The College of New Jersey and Rider University, who were looking for a female roommate for a house in Trenton. When I saw pictures of the place, and talked to one of the girls, I knew it would be perfect. But since I flew home to Orlando for the weekend after training, I didn’t see the house in person until the day before my internship started.

Quiz Time: And Just When You Thought You Were Safe!

Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post has written a delightful column about copy editors. Please go through what he writes paragraph by paragraph, making note of any errors or other problems you might find. Please do not scroll to the bottom before going through what Weingarten writes. Once you have finished, check out what you find with what he says. The URL follows. Good luck!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/19/AR2008061902920.html

She’s J-Lin at The Journal: Some Notes on Work, Play, and Exploring NYC

Jessica Lin of the University of North Carolina and a summer editing DJNF/Temple editing intern at The Wall Street Journal provides an update on things work-related and otherwise.

I’ve settled into a routine by now and have gotten used to my 3:30 to 11 p.m. shift. Of course, as soon as I get used to that, we will be switching the shifts around! But I’m excited that The Wall Street Journal is going to run us through the gamut (!) of shifts, so that we all get to experience the different editions, the Asia, the Europe and U.S. editions. Also, we’ve kind of gotten used to what the WSJ has us doing each day. We come in and have minor/brief stories to edit and trim and then write headlines for. I still get excited whenever I see one of my tiny headlines in The Wall Street Journal. I think one day I had a whole InBrief column with *my* headlines. All the copy editors are friendly and good about giving constructive feedback. People have given me really useful advice about avoiding bad headline breaks and when stock quotes should be included in a brief. My slot editor, another Jessica (which gets a little confusing because she sits right behind me…so another slot editor has joked around about finding me a nickname; she’s tried out intern Jessica or UNC Jessica but those didn’t seem to stick. The latest one is J-Lin. She says it sounds hip. But not hipster), has read over print-outs of a large sampling of our stories and has commented on the headlines and the cuts we made. I have found these comments incredibly helpful.

Tight Campus Quarters, a New Roommate, and a Chess Club Mini Reunion: All Part of Summer in the City

Ashley Thomas of the University of Missouri is a summer editing intern at The Associated Press. She shares a dorm room at Columbia University. Here are some insights:

My roommate, Molly, and I are getting along famously. She’s a senior
at a small college in northeastern Pennsylvania, and she’s interning
for a company that deals with urban planning in three states.

It’s always nice to get along with your roommate, but I feel it’s
especially fortunate in our case — we share a bedroom, living room
and kitchen because they all happen to be in the same room. It sounds
bad, but it’s really quite convenient if you wake up hungry in the
middle of the night. You can just reach over, open the refrigerator
and take out a cheese sandwich. I may be exaggerating a bit, but it’s
pretty close quarters.

We have a good system in the morning. I’m the high-maintenance one,
so I’ll wake up extra early so I have more time to stare blithely into
my closet and the refrigerator. She cooks, and I eat, and, in turn, I
let her borrow my hair drier and straightener. She works really hard
not to hate me on my days off (Wednesday and Thursday), and I do the
same for her when the weekend rolls around. We’re both sound sleepers,
which is helpful, since a truck driving past our window sounds like a
747 taking off.