Two Summer Internships at the Toronto Star!

[Kenneth Armstrong]

Better parking situation at Queen's Park back then, eh?

[Steve Russell]

But if a paper gets only a dozen or fewer applicants then something is broken.

I'm curious now, how many applicants do the other newspaper internships get?
How many apply for the Tom Hanson award?
What are the requirements for said awards and internships?

If you have to pay for your own work-related repairs, why put your gear or car at risk?

I'll ask Taras about this, but I'm sure any gear broken while on internship will be repaired.

Does any newspaper insure its gear or is it too expensive even for them?

Funny story, at the Star we have no specific insurance on gear, but we found out a few years ago that we were covered under a different policy that the company has. The deductable? $10,000!

Most jobs don't require you to own a car plus thousands of dollars worth of camera gear. It's a catch-22 thing: you need a job so you can buy the gear but you can't get a job unless you already own the gear.

There lies the dilemma.
What is most important?
I think that a graduate should have the car and gear after graduation, you should be prepped to work.
It would be nice if the paper still gave out a car to the summer students, but we don't anymore.
Like I said before I sacrificed gear for a car.
But I also spend two months of summer break surrounded by bugs planting trees to raise money for tuition, gear, film and paper. (I just dated myself there)

[David Buzzard]

In my entire career, I've only spent a year as a true staff photographer, and that only had a very small equipment allowance.  If you're a freelancer, and I suspect that there are going to be very few staff photographers hired anytime in the near future, you better be prepared to have your own gear.  I've said this before, there just isn't enough money in editorial freelancing to make a professional living, you need to have commercial work to pay the bills.

[Fred Lum]

My first ever internship at the then wonderful London Free Press back in the early 80's before most of you were a twinkle in your parents' eyes, (herein called the Freep), I had use of a company car for assignments. Made the mistake of taking a car home one night and heard about that quite strongly the next day. never happened agin

I also had most of my own gear but the cubbie of long lenses were there for the asking. Back then the sight of a 300 2.8 caused heart palpitations in this summer staffer. I imagine today, students consider 300 on the short end of teles.

[Rod Frketich]

To answer your question Warren applications for the summer job here at The Record have been dropping off steadily for the past number of years. The quality of candidates is still very good--the top few show very great talent. Good singles very good stories.
I am surprised each year how numbers of people applying are slipping. There are fewer summer jobs out there, I would expect the numbers to climb as people try and get their foot in the door.
The most interesting thing I find is how few first year students apply. Just having your work seen, building a relationship, showing progressing each time your portfolio viewed. That alone is worth applying.

[Warren Toda]

I do recall, around 1999/2000, the Toronto Sun would get perhaps 30 (or more?) applications each year. There was always a large box overflowing with portfolios.

Since numbers are down, do you fault the newspapers, the students, the schools, the economy?

Some of us can probably remember when most major papers across the country hired two, three, four, or more, photo students for the summer. Today I can think of only six photo internships in the entire country.

[Steve Russell]

Since numbers are down, do you fault the newspapers, the students, the schools, the economy?

Maybe the blame lies everywhere!
How is that for a copout!

The Star used to have three summer internships plus a year-long internship.
The paper killed the summer internships in 2009 and the year-long in 2008.
The summer internship was revived last summer and expanded by one spot this summer.
Maybe we fell off the internship radar, but I do know that Taras sent letters to Loyalist and SAIT two months before the deadline.

I am surprised each year how numbers of people applying are slipping. There are fewer summer jobs out there, I would expect the numbers to climb as people try and get their foot in the door.

I'm surprised too.
I'd love to see Loyalist and SAIT conduct a student survey on what their career aspirations are.
What is their dream job?
Where do they think they will be a month after graduating? A year? Five years?

Any students care to comment?

You would think that a summer internship at a paper would be a good first step regardless of where you want your path to lead.

The most interesting thing I find is how few first year students apply. Just having your work seen, building a relationship, showing progressing each time your portfolio viewed. That alone is worth applying.

I'll have to ask Taras if any first years applied.
But, I do agree with Rod!
First Years!
If you are out there, APPLY!
Let editors see your work, grow those networks!

[Andrew Lahodynskyj]

Hey guys,

jumping in on this conversation.

I just wrapped up my second year at Loyalist, and I can say that I applied for almost every single internship made known to me. There were one or two that I didn't hear about until after the deadline, but would have applied for those if I had the chance. I was also quite impressed with the number of internship opportunities this summer!

Steve and Rod, I agree with you about first years applying. It never hurts to have fresh eyes on your work. You never know, that editor might bring you under their wing and help you to become a stronger photographer/videographer which might land you the job the next summer.

I know personally I want to in Toronto covering news, sports, and whatever other work I can get. Some classmates of mine have decided that documentary is more their thing and don't really have a lot of interest in doing your typical daily newspaper work.

Those are just my two cents.

[Fred Lum]

I may get burned for this but forgoing a newspaper internship because they want to do doc work is short sighted imo. If you look at the photographers who are doing that type of work, you will see that they pretty well all have grounding in daily newspaper work and some are staff or continue to freelance for newspapers and wires.

Yeah the daily assignments you get may not at first blush be what you want to do but you WILL learn and at the same time, squirrel away some coin for your future projects. I get that newspapers are not in fashion but it's extremely myopic to pass up that opportunity.

Indeed, if you don't have a good relationship with photo editors (a benefit of summer placements), then you're going to have a tough job ahead building that relationship if you do end up with a project that you want published.

With the way the industry is now, why someone would ignore this knowledge and skill building chapter of their young career is simply baffling. Unless they're god's gift...

[Robin Rowland]

I'm sure the Star as one of the biggest surviving papers in Canada and a Guild shop does pay interns somewhat decently (for interns that is).  Perhaps the lack of applicants is because the students (student comments welcome) are looking at the big picture and the even more dismal state of small town journalism.

A blog post by Andrew Kurjata for CBC Prince George is still getting posts on FB from CBC and other folk almost a week after the layoffs. http://andrewkurjata.ca/blog/2015/04/17/journalism-2015/

And I am putting the most quoted pull quote in bold

In Prince George, I have seen newsrooms everywhere shrink as, like the CBC, people are expected to do more with less. I have seen many talented people parachute out of journalism to jobs elsewhere. As one former newsroom director told me, she was making barely more than if she were to take a job at Dairy Queen, and she wasn’t sure it was worth it anymore. Being a journalist has become akin to a backpack trip around the world: something relatively-well-off people do in their twenties before getting a real job.

When I started as entry level "two way man" at the Sudbury Star, 40 years ago, the pay was decent enough, I had a small apartment and company car, although I usually used my own camera (after all it was a Thomson paper). In those days in Sudbury my young colleagues in private radio were paid a lot better relative to what they are paid now--today it is often close to minimum wage, so it may mean that Dairy Queen may actually pay more.

forgoing a newspaper internship because they want to do doc work is short sighted imo.

  Fred watching what goes on, there may be a feeling that "doc work" is the only "real" work,  one reason is that a lot of the routine work done in the past is now given to reporters with point and shoots or smart phones.  In the past few years, with Northern Gateway and LNG the news here, while I do get wire and newspaper assignments and staff photogs show up from time to time, most of the reporters including some from large papers who come here simply shoot with their phones and those images run. (Of course they missed the better shots you get with long lenses, but I get the feeling their managers don't really care)   
 

[Andrew Lahodynskyj]

There have actually been quite a few recent grads going out west to papers for staff jobs. Lloydminster's newsroom is full of fairly recent Loyalist grads. A classmate of mine just got a staff position with the Welland Tribune as a two way.

I'm sure that nerves play into the decision of applying or not. I remember when I sent my application to the Star last summer I was completely terrified. Mostly because I have always been extremely self critical, and I'm sure a lot of first year photoj students feel the same way sometimes. But I managed to get an interview, which really caught me off gaurd, and it was a fantastic learning experience.

Fred I completely agree with what you said. Maybe some people will come around. I hope that many of my fellow classmates and future students embrace the advisory board and get their foot in the door with all the editors so that when they do go out in the world they have a good foundation to work off.

[Fred Lum]

I hope that many of my fellow classmates and future students embrace the advisory board...

can you explain this ? extremely curious

[Robin Rowland]

From the Washington Post



Story
Why the PR industry is sucking up Pulitzer winners
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/23/why-the-pr-industry-is-sucking-up-pulitzer-winners/

[Steve Russell]

Some classmates of mine have decided that documentary is more their thing and don't really have a lot of interest in doing your typical daily newspaper work.

I understand that, but what I have a hard time understanding is what are these students going to do after graduating.

Newspaper photojournalism isn't everyone's bag of tea,
but an internship at a newspaper is a great stepping stone or heck, pay cheque for taking pictures!

Some of the documentary photojournalists that passed through the doors at the Star as interns include Charla Jones, Ian Willms, Patti Gower.
Heck, Don Weber interned and freelanced at the Toronto Sun. Louie Palu was staff at the Globe.

I hope that many of my fellow classmates and future students embrace the advisory board and get their foot in the door with all the editors so that when they do go out in the world they have a good foundation to work off.

I hope so too, I know that the advisory board visits are a littkle intimidating, I still have nightmares of Rod McIvor cropping all my pictures.
I think the committee has made some good strides, especially by adding photojournalists like Marta Iwanek, who is a recent graduate and experiencing a career path many of the students will follow when they graduate.
I used those visits when I was Loyalist to build a network with most of the advisors. I got cards from everyone and tried to keep in touch after graduating.

[David Buzzard]

Almost every event and festival has PR people generating stories and pre-written tweets, as well as generating photos.

It's not happening that much in the writing end of things, but I find the newspapers I work for will take handout photos rather than using photos from me.  Now when we have a big festival in town, I don't really put much energy into covering it, as I know they're just going to use the free handouts.