2018 Center for Editing Excellence

Eleven college students and recent college graduates are headed to copy editing internships after completing 10 days of intensive preparation at The University of Texas at Austin.

The interns are among a group of undergraduate and graduate students placed in internships in copy editing, sports copy editing, business reporting and digital journalism.

Southwest Journalist website hosted by School Newspapers Online.

The highly competitive national program is operated by the Dow Jones News Fund. The more than 750 applicants had to take a test and complete an extensive application.

Newspaper professionals, visiting faculty and UT journalism faculty moderated the sessions in this 21st residency program at UT-Austin.

In the latter half of the pre-internship training, participants produced, with the help of the Associated Press, three issues of a model newspaper, the Southwest Journalist, as well as a companion online product, swjournalist.com sponsored by School Newspapers Online.

The UT-News Fund interns serve internships of 10 to 12 weeks.

Grants from the News Fund and contributions from participating news organizations cover the participants’ training, including housing, meals, transportation and instruction.

Participating newspapers also pay interns a weekly wage for their internship work. Students returning to their universities after the internships are eligible for a $1,000 scholarship provided by the News Fund.

Beth Butler and Bradley Wilson served as co-directors of the workshop with assistance from Clare Boyle, administrative manager of the UT School of Journalism.

Follow the Southwest Journalist on Twitter @swjournalist.

Faculty included George Sylvie, associate professor at UT-Austin; Mark Grabowski, associate professor at Adelphi University; and Heather Taylor, manager of digital media programs at the News Fund in Princeton, New Jersey.

Students also had the opportunity to visit with John Cox and other staff members at Community Impact Newspaper in Pflugerville. “Print journalism is very much alive! I liked seeing the printing press and learning more about hyper-local reporting,” said one of the interns in an evaluation. “Community Impact is pushing a new kind of method to do print journalism and it’s working in Texas,” said another. “It looked like they were going nowhere but up.”

And visited Corrie MacLaggan and staff at the Texas Tribune. “It was great to see young, lively newsroom and a non-profit that’s growing. I wish I worked there,” said one of the interns in an informal evaluation. “It was nice to see a newsroom doing something so different and still succeeding,” said another.

Guest speakers included Dan Cunningham, retired senior editor of the Houston Chronicle; and Will Weisert, Associated Press Austin Bureau chief.

• CLICK HERE to view the May 30, 2018 issue.
• CLICK HERE to view the May 30, 2018 issue.
• CLICK HERE to view the May 30, 2018 issue.