A Day in the Life of a Newspaper Intern

At CMGO’s Newsroom, there are several different groups. This is broken down depending on if you write for a certain section or site. I am an intern for the Explanatory Journalism team, a team that focuses on visual reporting that tends to be user-focused. There are other interns on the Newsroom floor each working in different sections. Like many of the other interns here, I get the opportunity to move around in the company so that I can get the most out of my time here. This includes shadowing other departments or going out on the streets to interview locals. The bulk of my work is spent writing stories, using data I’ve researched online.

A big thing about the Explanatory Journalism team is that we try to report articles with more visual aspects. We do this through videos, photos or hardcoding in custom CSS to the article. We also have a fairly flexible schedule. That means that, while I typically work two long days and one short day during the week, another intern could have different hours than me.

Here is an example of what my schedule might be like on one of my long days:

8:00 AM – Arrive at the building, boot up my computer and grab coffee.

8:05 AM – Meet with my boss, Kyle Nagel, to discuss what article(s) to work on for the day and check/delete emails.

8:15 AM – Start research on an article and write the draft in our story program, Méthode, to give to Kyle so he can edit it and give me feedback.

11:30 AM – Take my lunch break. I alternate between bringing my lunch and eating it at my desk or going out to one of Dayton’s local restaurants.

12:30 PM – Look over comments from Kyle and make some changes he recommends.

1:30 PM – Begin researching and drafting a new article or work on a long-term project I have for the summer.

3:00 PM – Meet with Kyle for a quick review of the day and discuss ideas for possible future articles.

5:00 PM – Shut down my computer, pack up and head home.

For the most part, that’s how most of my long days go. As for my short day, I normally will spend the day working on a single story or I’ll continue working on my long-term project until I leave at around 12:00 PM.