Q. I met you at a conference last year, and I use your column as my guide to everything I don't know about this business.
My question's a little early, but it's something that crossed my mind. I'm currently interning for a mid-sized metro (80,000 circulation). It's my second internship -- I interned at a community newspaper that's a part of a small media group in my hometown last summer. I also work for my student newspaper during the school year. I won't be graduating for another couple years, so I have at least one or two more internships ahead of me. What would be more appropriate to use for clips when I'm applying? I'm an intern, so I don't get to write the most hard-hitting news stories. I've been able to write a few good enterprise stories for the student paper, as well as cover a story that received national attention this year. Once you've had an internship, is it better to use only clips from your internship or can you send in clips that show what you've done for your student newspaper as well?
I'd really appreciate any help you had to offer!
Thinking about the Future
A. Many interns are in just your situation: Good college clips, softer, more recent clips from mainstream publications.
Editors are looking for variety: news, features, profiles, enterprise, first-person. So, mix things up in terms of content and have variety in your leads or story approaches. And don't be embarrassed to include clips from your college paper if they help you fill those niches.
Improve every year so that your best work is never more than a couple years old.
Learn more about how to handle clips and other parts of your application in
"Breaking In: The JobsPage.com Guide to Newspaper Internships."
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