There seems to be a little pushback against my call for interns, namely, my designation that the internships are unpaid. Some great points were made, and I want to clarify a few things:
• At the successful completion of the internship, interns on the Jezebel manuscript - just like the interns on…
First of all, I always assumed that “unpaid internship” automatically meant that you were working for college credit. Or that you are “volunteering” to work in exchange for experience and writing opportunities. After having done a buttload of internships—one summer I alternated days at Talk and BUST while working weekends in the NYU housing department and moonlighting as a Camels cigarette girl at night to make ends meet—I feel like people who complain about internships being unpaid are super entitled and need to get a better work ethic if they ever want to make it in publishing. Newsflash: Your life in this industry will essentially be an unpaid internship.
