Editorial Internships

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Creative Loafing - Atlanta offers highly competitive internships to active journalism students. The internships offer students an opportunity to gain real-world experience at the Southeast's leading alternative weekly and Georgia's second-most widely circulated newspaper.

As a small organization with a commitment to the very best journalism, we give interns a chance to learn how decisions are made. Interns are encouraged to pitch story ideas to all editors and sections of the paper, but we hold them to the same standards as our professional writers. Most interns leave their internships with a set of clips and have even contributed to feature stories and award-winning pieces. Creative Loafing interns are highly successful, self-motivated students and some have gone on to top graduate journalism programs, positions at other papers as well as working with Creative Loafing .

The best interns are assertive, ambitious and organized. Each candidate should have some journalism experience and must be working toward a degree. Additionally, candidates must be receiving credit for the internship. Do we make exceptions? NO. Students with published work preferred. We require a minimum commitment of 12-16 hours per week.

The number of interns working with the editorial staff varies but these are the general areas where most interns work:

Events: Interns support the events editor with both Happenings and Arts Agenda listings.   It is an information bank of the arts and entertainment events taking place throughout metro Atlanta. Events interns also contribute to See & Do, a weekly round-up of the city's best events.   As they establish their skills, interns may also write briefs and contribute to other sections.

Food & Drink: An intern interested in cuisine writing will assist the food editor in keeping up-to-date on restaurant listings, including the online Good Eats category that includes reviews of hundreds of Atlanta restaurants, as well as dealing with Web content and fact-checking.

Music: Music interns compile music listings, help organize and administer the local music archives, and assist the music editor in various projects. Once they have demonstrated their skills, music interns may be called upon to write record reviews or weekly music highlights. Atlanta has a vibrant music scene; this section is one of the most popular and largest parts of the paper – and for writers, one of the most competitive. Pressing deadlines on Fridays; availability will be considered in placement.

News: Interns interested in covering hard news and copy-editing work with our award-winning staff writers and editors in the news and operations departments. News interns maintain our civic-related events and assist reporters in researching stories, compiling information, writing blog posts, maintaining our community blog, helping to build our neighborhood guide, and fact-checking. Pressing deadlines are on Fridays and Mondays; availability on those days will be considered in placement.

Photography: The photography intern shoots weekly photography assignments that are published in Creative Loafing. Along with this responsibility, the intern works to organize our image archive, assists the staff photographer on location, completes photo research and helps prepare images for publication. Experience using Adobe Photoshop and digital photography equipment is required. Personal SLR digital photo equipment and newsroom experience is a plus. Must have a reliable vehicle and be available to shoot assignments on most weekends throughout the internship.

Video: The video intern works to produce short weekly videos about Atlanta that are published on the Creative Loafing website. Digital video editing experience and video production experience required. Access to a video camera and editing software is a plus. Must be available at least one-week day and most weekends. This internship is an excellent opportunity to build your video experience and be a part of the growing journalistic video world.

Although we’ll work with students regarding schedules and deadlines, we generally try to stick to three separate terms: fall (late August through late December), spring (early-January through early May), summer (mid-May through mid-August). Deadlines for application packets are: November 15 for the spring, March 15 for the summer and August 15 for the fall. To apply, please send a cover letter (explaining how the internship will fit into your course of study), a resume, two references (with e-mail and phone number), and three samples of your work to:

Alicia Wages, Creative Loafing, 384 Northyards Blvd., Suite 600, Atlanta GA 30313, or alicia.wages@creativeloafing.com. Please no phone calls or surprise visits.