The Washington Post Newsroom Summer Internship Program

2021 Eligibility

You must be a college junior, senior or graduate student enrolled in a degree program by the application deadline date. You must have had at least one professional news media job or internship.

Application deadline

We are accepting applications for the 2021 Summer Internship Program through Wednesday, Oct. 7 by Noon Eastern Time.

Application form

Complete the online application in modern browsers such Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari. Please attach all relevant materials, including résumé, work samples and autobiographical essay. All work submitted must be in English.

Roles for interns

• Reporters: Clear, concise, energetic writing is highly valued. Conventional coverage of news events should be demonstrated, but a higher value is placed upon enterprise reporting that shows creative, inventive or investigative skills. Writing for the web is also highly valued. Please indicate your reporting assignment preference: General Assignments (includes National and Health & Science sections), Foreign (assignments will be in the Washington newsroom), Arts, Entertainment and Culture, Local, Sports or Editorial (will be assigned to the Opinions section). No more than three clips.
• Visual Journalists: For digital photographers, candidates must be proficient in Photoshop CS, photo management software, and Mac and PC platforms. Your application must include a portfolio. Videographers must be proficient in all aspects of digital video/audio and editing software, including Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. Experience with voiceover narration and HTML is helpful. Required portfolio must be attached. Please indicate your assignment preference: Photography or Video.
• Multiplatform Editors: Successful editors must be able to edit for multiple platforms, writing headlines that are tailored for print and digital audiences. Editors must also have a keen understanding of style, grammar and sentence structure, and must be able to edit for clarity. We also value editors who can detect problems in stories and work with others to make them better. Writing captions for photo galleries, proofing pages and the ability to work calmly under intense deadlines are also requirements, as is strong news judgment. Include up to six examples of news or feature stories you have edited, preferably files that include a headline and caption(s) for web or print.
• Multiplatform Producers: The producer will be responsible for updating the web and mobile sites with fresh content and making sure article pages have critical web elements. We are looking for interns with solid news judgment, the ability to write smart headlines and blurbs and experience at packaging web stories, photo galleries and videos. An ideal candidate also will be adept at analyzing traffic data and web trends, understanding search engine optimization, be a quick and effective problem solver and be able to quickly learn to use new web publishing tools.
• News and Digital Designers: The designers craft the visual presentations of our content across platforms. We are looking for interns capable of creating innovative storytelling presentations and then tailoring them to all of our platforms. A candidate must be a strong visual designer, able to work well on deadline and have experience working well with photography and video. They should be proficient in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Photoshop, and InDesign. Send a portfolio that includes five examples of your digital design work. The portfolio should be contained in one PDF or link on your application form.
• Graphics Reporters and Developers: The graphics reporters and developers tell visual stories and present data on the web. A candidate should be able to utilize the entire storytelling toolbox — writing, reporting, charting, coding, mapping and data visualization — and know how to weave it all together to tell engaging stories. The candidate will create, or assist in creating, news applications such as data-driven maps, databases, social media apps, widgets and mobile tools that will either stand alone or be paired with other digital content. They will work closely with reporters and editors in the newsroom, either through mining existing data on the web, taking in feeds, or working with digital producers to imagine new ways to present information. They will work with the design and development team to indicate, design and help develop tools digital producers can use to enhance engagement. Candidates must be proficient in CSS(3), HTML(5), JQuery, JavaScript and must have experience in developing with databases, XML, JSON, PHP and/or Django. Send a portfolio that includes five to 10 examples of your work. The portfolio should be contained in one PDF or link on your application form.
• Audience Producers: The producers on this team expand the reach of our storytelling and engagement with our journalism. We are looking for students who obsessively find ways to connect stories with readers. For instance, you may be a social media editor using Instagram Stories to break news, a newsletter writer responsible for a weekly email breaking down the biggest story, or a digital editor crafting the perfect web headline. Familiarity working in a web CMS, reading digital metrics, and analyzing reader habits is required. Please include two samples of native digital work you’ve produced (e.g. a tweet thread, newsletter, sharable graphic, website redesign, etc.) with your application.
• Audio Producers: The producer helps record, write and edit audio stories for long-form and short-form podcasts, and works collaboratively with reporters and editors to find and bring to life Post reporting. The ideal candidate has a background in sound design, audio production or both. Our producers combine traditional journalistic skills with creative approaches to telling stories through sound. We also value a producer who brings creative approaches to promotion and community-building. Proficiency in either Adobe Audition or Pro Tools is required. Please include three links to audio clips with your application.