Want to know how desperate the times are for American newspapers? Here's a measure that strikes close to home! The Dean of the University of North Carolina's j-school says the Philadelphia Inquirer won't be paying its student interns any longer. Instead, the paper wants school's to subsidize the internships!
Having come from the radio and TV world, unpaid internships are certainly nothing new to me. But union rules at most metropolitan papers prohibit students working for free. And j-schools are typically not flush enough to cover the costs of dozens or, in some instances, hundreds of intern-seeking undergrads.
One respondent on the UNC blog compares this development to a company cutting its R&D budget. And you can bet the Philly paper won't be the only one with it's hand out to (or putting its gun to the head of) journalism schools.
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