There has been a fair amount of comment about my previous post, “New Twists on Internships,” both in the comments here, on Romanesko, and in Richard Griffin’s column, “journal-isms.” Although my blog referred to a telephone call I received from the Inquirer, I have since received a letter from Vernon Loeb, Deputy Managing Editor/News, for the Inquirer. The letter verifies the call I received earlier.  I quote from the letter:

“The Inquirer has traditionally selected from a very large pool of applicants to place 12 interns in our newsroom every summer at a cost of $5,650 per intern.  Given the financial strains The Inquirer and other newspapers now face, we are no longer able to support this program on our own.  To maintain the program in 2009 and future years, we have begun asking universities to help us fund all or part of the cost of an internship, in return for guaranteed placement of their students. . . . We would need a commitment from you by Dec. 15 in order to ensure that a North Carolina student joins us for the summer of 2009.”

To repeat what I said earlier, neither universities nor journalism schools should be in the business of buying internships.

Last week I went to Little Rock, Arkansas to visit Walter Hussman, a Carolina journalism graduate and the publisher of the Little Rock Arkansas Democrat Gazette.  Walter is a mild-mannered person, so much so that Griffin Smith, his executive editor, says that sometimes Walter’s tenacity surprises people.

During that visit Smith gave me a copy of notes of a talk that Walter made in April, 1997, in Howell Hall.  Walter talked about how fads in journalism would come and go…the “new” journalism of the 1970s, “mellow” journalism (soft features) of the 1980s, and civic journalism of the 1990s.  None of these fads, Walter pointed out, won Pulitzer prizes. 

Walter argued in his talk that Watergate coverage, or “investigative journalism,” boosted respect for journalism…so much so that journalism school enrollments rapidly expanded.  He said Watergate coverage was not based on new journalism or on giving readers what they wanted.  It was based on “the intellectual and ethical principles that evolved over decades in 20th Century American journalism.”  Walter said he learned these principles in Howell Hall in the 1960s.

The principles he listed are objectivity; skepticism (especially of government officials); detachment; independence; putting the reader first; not just covering, but uncovering the news; reporting the facts, regardless of whether they agreed with the opinions of the reporter, the editor, or the publisher; reporting without fear or favor to anyone, no sacred cows; a strong separation of news and opinion in the newspaper.

These principles are in vogue today.  We still teach them, now in Carroll Hall, and we hope that our students take these values with them as they go into the world of journalism, whether it be at a newspaper, an online news organization or  a television or radio station. 

Walter Hussman is a successful businessman.  He believes that his success is related to his principles.  And his executive editor agrees.  Smith told me that Walter never says, “Well, maybe we ought to not do that story” because not covering the story would save money. Walter says there are finite resources, but we need to put them toward what the newspaper does best…covering, and uncovering, the news.

I had a call from the Philadelphia Inquirer a few days ago announcing a change in its internship policy.  No longer will interns compete for 12 coveted paid internships on the Inquirer.  Instead, the Inquirer has decided it can no longer afford to pay interns–but union contracts also don’t allow the newspaper to let interns work without being paid. 

The Inquirer now is asking journalism schools to pay the newspaper a stipend to support the internships.  Each school that agrees to do so will have one guaranteed internship. 

This raises several questions about the future of internships.  Will other news organizations introduce such a policy?  If so, this could be the end of internships for journalism students.  JOMC has at least 200 students interning every summer.  There is no way the School can fund those–nor should internships be funded by university journalism programs.

Ideally, all student interns should be paid by news organizations.  Students have valuable skills, they work hard, and news organizations get the benefit of their labor.  But the reality is that news organizations increasingly ask them to work for free.  Even so, students want to compete for good internships and they receive college credit. 

UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication won’t be participating in the Inquirer’s program.  I hope the Inquirer’s approach is not adopted by other news organizations.