Writing on the Wall

What you could do on your summer vacation

Intern opportunities at Richner Communications

Posted

At the bottom of this column is a call for interns. The job is not for the faint of heart. It can be thankless, yet absolutely rewarding. Sound good? It may to you hardy souls who, despite yourselves, have a longing to write and report the news.

A Herald newsroom intern can do anything from making phone calls and answering e-mails, to helping cover news and human interest stories — and sometimes, before they leave their internship here, possibly even gett a bylined story under their belt. Many interns have returned to work at the Herald as reporters and editors.

Before you make that phone call (many college, and some high school students intern here on their summer break) think about what you read in your local newspaper. Or do you read it at all? Did one of your parents hand you this column? Ah, I thought so. Do you like your hometown sports news, school news, breaking news? Letters to the editor? Crime? Upcoming events? Some people read the paper cover to cover, others scan the classifieds, skip to the sports page, then start all over again. Try reading the next issue cover to cover — you may like it.

Some people say that the 170-year-old newspaper is a dying business (“They” also said that people would never go to the movies when they could watch television in the comfort of their own home.) Having said that, very local news is thriving and changing. We are segueing our weekly reporting into more up-to-date Internet reporting, all the while keeping it fresh in print and online. Advertisers are jocking their ads for the best placement, also knowing that, along with the instant gratification of the Web, that an awful lot of people still sit down with their weekly paper and talk about its contents over the backyard fence (or over a Corona Light with lime.) Much Internet writing is unchecked, and it’s up to the reader to weed out the truth from the blogs and the opinions — they’re not as clearly defined as they are in the newspaper.

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