Signs of life for Hollywood North (and me)
Posted by Cassandra | Filed under Career, Journalism
The first three days of my internship at the National Post have already come and gone, and, as usual, I shouldn’t have stressed myself out so much beforehand.
In some ways, it’s exactly what I expected, but mostly it’s not what I expected at all.
For most of the day (until it gets closer to deadline), the news room is almost as quiet as a library. Most people just mind their own business and do their own thing.
I was introduced to a dozen or so people, but I couldn’t tell you what most of their names are.
Except for the two other interns on either side of me, I have no idea what anyone else is working on. I catch snippets from other reporters’ interviews if they’re sitting near me and talking loudly, but mostly everything in the paper the next day is a complete surprise.
The majority of the people who work there are men, and almost everyone is white.
And interns are definitely not coddled. I think I’m already trying my editor’s patience with how much I communicate with him (especially near deadline).
Tomorrow, my first article — Signs of life for Hollywood North: ‘Toronto is back on the radar’ — will be published in the Toronto edition of the paper.
Although I did work really hard on the story, I was kind of surprised at how easy it was to put together. After all, I didn’t think in my first week I would be interviewing Mayor David Miller, producer Ivan Reitman or the men who financed and run Filmport, among others.
Having a large publication like the Post behind my name when I try to set up interviews has given me a greater confidence. I know my own skills are strong enough to get things done, but it feels so nice to not have to say “journalism student” or “reporter at [a publication you’ve never heard of].”
It’s not a family feeling like we had at The Ryersonian, but I can already tell I’m going to get a lot out of it — the really nice clippings are just a bonus.
Tags: internship, National Post, story
I'm a writer and editor just starting my career at 
March 8th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
hey, congratulations!