After multiple lawsuits over interns' wages, magazine conglomerate Condé Nast shut down their internship program on Oct. 23.
Three Condé Nast interns sued the company after they believed they had been unfairly compensated for the work they did and wanted to see interns have the ability to unionize in the future. Condé Nast, whose brands include Vogue, Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, responded to these demands by closing the program.
"Internships are so essential at the collegiate level for students to have any hope of landing a job in the journalism field," senior journalism lecturer Patti Newberry said. "You need to build on writing and reporting skills in order to be hirable. Students can't learn it all in the classroom, they have to go out there and do it for themselves."
Newberry said one of the huge issues that stood out for her in this case is a trend that she has noticed for a while: the concept of not paying interns. She said unpaid internships are often written off as okay with companies because they offer school credit in exchange for the work, but what it boils down to is students paying companies to let them get the experience they need.
"When I was an undergraduate student, I had four internships, all paid, and this was 30 years ago," Newberry said. "I was paid a minimum of $300 dollars a week, I paid bills and took care of rent, but now so few organizations pay their interns. Still some of the higher up organizations do, like The New York Times and The Washington Post, but the majority of internships today are unpaid."
Even for students in Oxford, who are offered a variety of internship opportunities through the school's connections in the greater Cincinnati area, still face a large percentage of their options being unpaid, Newberry said.
"The lack of pay and the disadvantage of our location, with having to travel to most professional internships, are large disincentives for students," Newberry said. "There is a long list of expenses tied with being a working person, and to pay them to accept an unpaid position can be a bitter pill to swallow."
On Miami's campus,ß there are a number of organizations that offer experience to students, Newberry said, but they cannot be a replacement for the professional experience that an internship offers. Organizations such as The Miami Student, WMSR, Miami Quarterly, and Inklings all offer a space for students to work on their skillsets, but don't replace the spot of an internship on a resume.
"Luckily, most students are still eager to land internships because they understand how essential it is to their career, so they have just accepted that they are not going to be paid," Newberry said. "That is what has been drilled into them now since high school of how an internship works."
Former Condé Nast intern, junior Alissa Pollack is one of those students who were willing to work unpaid in exchange for the valuable experience her internship offered. Pollack said her months at Teen Vogue this past summer were such a great opportunity that she felt being given school credit was enough compensation, but she added that anyone who is going to be unpaid needs to be benefiting in some way.
"If you're getting school credit as an intern, then you are being compensated in some way," Pollack said. "An intern should be benefiting from the internship more than the company, the point of an internship is to be a learning opportunity and to build on your experiences. If you are just running around getting coffee, that doesn't help with that, and so then yes you need to be getting paid."
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After working for Teen Vogue this past summer, Pollack said she had hopes of interning for Vanity Fair this upcoming summer, but now is not sure where that opportunity stands. While Condé Nast said in their press statement that the end of the program would not affect current interns at any of their publications, Pollack said that her plans for this summer are unknown at this time.
"It's going to be really difficult because I loved working for them this past summer, it was an amazing experience, and I had every intention of applying to do the same this summer," Pollack said. "I have to kind of start at square one again about where I want to apply for the summer and where I want to look because this was my number one option."
Pollack and Newberry agreed that seeing the closing of the Condé Nast program is frightening because it leaves the rest of the industry unsure of what move other media groups will make next. Newberry said that with the industry struggling how it is today, many companies are looking at the cost benefit relationships of these programs and have to reevaluate.
"It's scary to see a group like Condé Nast just throwing in the towel," Newberry said. "It's a real fear that other media organizations could go the same way if they want to avoid litigation, which seems to be fashionable right now. I would not be surprised to see more media groups dropping their programs."
"I think the loss of this program is really sad," Pollack said. "Condé Nast is one of the biggest student intern programs in the country, and in the industry, and it provided people who wanted to get into the industry with a lot of opportunities, contacts, and experience in general. Also people who interned there had a higher chance of working there so it throws off the whole system; its scary to think other people in the industry might follow suit."
In the wake of opportunities closing, Career Services employee Forrest McGuire said the best thing for journalism students is to work on improving and building their resumes. Focusing on the universal hiring characteristics, such as leadership experience and good academic performance, is very important in addition to any career specific campus involvement to making your resume as best as it can be.
"Depending on the field, an internship can make or break the real time job offers that students are looking for after graduation," McGuire said. "A lot of employers really value the real-world experience, they look to see if your experience correlates with a potential job they could offer you."
McGuire said the best thing that can be done after the closing of a huge program like Condé Nast is to be proactive in making yourself the best competitor you can be for the remaining internship programs out there.
"I think students who want to be in New York and want to work for a magazine obviously have much more limited options now, but maybe it will open their eyes to more possibilities," Pollack said. "It could be a good thing for some people who will work harder at finding other positions, but it will also be bad for others who don't have that same drive."
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