Posted On: March 6, 2012
Journalism Internship
Media Organization: NY Times / NYU - The Local East Village
Company Description
The Local is produced by NYU's The Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute in collaboration with The New York Times.
Job Description
The Local East Village is offering an opportunity to write for the Website of The New York Times during the summer of 2012: May 14 to Sept. 1. A collaboration between The Times and NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, the online news site seeks reporters that are eager to produce lively, engaging, and timely stories about one of the city’s great neighborhoods. If not local residents, applicants should be savvy about the East Village and eager to explore it to the hilt, with an eye for news minutia as well as larger stories in the areas of education, politics, crime, housing and real estate, arts and culture, and business openings and closings, to name just some of The Local’s areas of coverage. You should be able to cultivate sources and write quickly and accurately, with an engaging, “bloggy” tone and sense of humor when appropriate. During the summer, you’ll be representing The Local and The New York Times; an adaptable, outgoing, professional demeanor is a must.
This job (pay rate: $500 per week) will require that you act as a news runner daily from the hours of 9 p.m. till 6 p.m. You’ll be on call at 20 Cooper Square to report stories as assigned by The Local's editor, a visiting professor at the Arthur L. Carter Institute; you'll also be working closely with the site's full-time on-staff reporter. You may be asked to cover nighttime events such as community board meetings. Since you’ll also be encouraged to pitch stories and even come up with ideas for regular columns during weekly editorial meetings, creative thinking and a familiarity with the blogosphere is a plus. We’re looking for someone who is proactive, eager to share ideas, and has a sense of fun. But above all, The Local strives to be the first to report neighborhood news in a competitive environment; you should be able to thrive under tight deadlines and turn around copy that meets the standards of The Times, editors of which work closely with The Local in case a story warrants pick-up across other NYTimes.com blogs or in the newspaper. You should expect to write a story per day, and be able to work on longer features while also producing shorter items.
Applicants should be competent in digital photography, since they’ll be expected to take photos for stories; experience with video reporting and editing is a plus, as is a familiarity with social media. A strong knowledge of HTML and WordPress is all the better. In addition to reporting duties, you may be asked to create event listings, link dumps, and the like.
Please have proven experience in the field of journalism and a deep respect for the tenets of the craft. Graduate students of the Arthur L. Carter Institute or other journalism schools will be considered so long as they are exceptional writers with a proven track record.
To Apply
After visiting The Local at http://nytimes.com/eastvillage, please send a copy of your C.V. and links to at least five relevant clips to the editor, Daniel Maurer, at danielm@nyu.edu. Send attachments only if your stories are not available online. A link to your Flickr page or any other photo work will also be helpful.