Toronto Metro Replaces Staff With Unpaid Interns, Presumably Following The Independent’s Lead

Toronto’s Metro newspaper has fired its staff, but is continuing publication through a very depressing recession-busting strategy. A few days before the layoffs, newspaper owners Torstar brought in a team of interns, and it plans to use wire-copy, content partnerships and a motley crew of unpaid presumably poorly trained indentured workers, or “interns”, to rewrite copy. (UPDATE: The Globe and Mail blog referred to here has since been amended to read “Metro newspaper in Toronto is not replacing laid-off writers with interns. The newspaper’s internship program was not altered as a result of recent layoffs in the editorial department. An earlier version of this blog entry may have suggested otherwise“. Well, interns are still getting screwed. Read on.)

Interns are meant to learn on the job, and get thrown in the deep end; someone should teach them how to swim first. But in the US, internships are big money. College students keen on fleshing out an empty resume, but not so keen on the competition for places, are increasingly turning to the private sector to sort placements. The University of Dreams polishes resumes, interview skills, sets up all the logistics, and finds you a placement – all for $5,000-10,000 of Daddy’s money. It’s a business that has grown 1,000 percent in five years; as entrance to the job market is delayed, competition for places will only increase – struggling companies will be keen to cash in anywhere they can.

It’s the sort of thing that makes Johann Hari sick. Even using family connections to get internships and placements has him up in arms calling the whole thing a scam in the Independent. Hari never experienced an unpaid internship, succeeding in being paid for his internship at the New Statesmen. This is impossible now. Hari complains that talent is unfairly pushed aside by middle-class connections and a “corrosive nepotism” deciding that this scam “disfigures and damages Britain.” What possible solution is there?

Hari asks: “This is a question about what kind of country we want to live in.” I must ask: Is that the sort of newspaper you want to work for? The Guardian heard from staff at the Independent who explained “The paper is got out every day by an army of ‘unpaid interns’.” I can’t imagine how sick it would make Hari to take it one step further, and have interns pay for the privilege of bailing out the cash-strapped paper on a regular basis. Sounds like business sense to me – companies can continue to hire unaided interns at the same time.

Eager, bright interns should know that a trip to London, and six months on Uncle Dave’s sofa-bed, isn’t the way media internships have to work anymore. Anyone with motivation and an internet connection can offer their services to media companies around the world, and do all the work from home; or from student digs in the summer. The web allows you to communicate and work with colleagues through a combination of email, Skype, video-conferencing, internet messaging and very occasional face-to-face meetings. An increasing number of web-based businesses operate in this way – interns can too.

With graduate recruitment down, it might be a smart strategy. Telecommuting saves money on accommodation, it allows you to skirt around menial office tasks, and you can make flexible hours, working a part-time job at the same time. Working for online magazines, papers, or blogs is a different experience to traditional internships; you are likely to be valued, appreciated, and given something meaningful to do – not just bailing out a failing business model.

Posted by Mike Smith in Creative Economy | February 11, 2009 3:45PM |