Want to work at The Spinoff? Our internship programme, funded by the Auckland Radio Trust and The Spinoff Members, is back. 

We’re seeking applications for the fourth year of our internship programme, aimed at writers without newsroom experience who would like to join The Spinoff’s Tāmaki Makaurau-based team. The successful candidate will spend six months based at our office, gaining experience across reporting, feature writing and editing, and will be paid the living wage. The starting date is flexible, allowing candidates of the 2023 graduating classes to apply.

For a fourth year, the internship is jointly funded by the Auckland Radio Trust and The Spinoff Members. ART is funding this in memory of Vince Geddes, its long-time station manager, while The Spinoff Members is contributing to affirm our commitment to giving fresh voices a chance to join our newsroom and experience life in a modern news magazine startup. We are not limiting the internship to those with journalistic qualifications – if you believe you can create journalism, and have a passion for it, we’d like to hear from you.

In 2020, Sherry Zhang and Charlotte Muru-Lanning (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato Tainui, Ngāti Whātua) each spent six months with us through this programme. Zhang, who was named a finalist in the 2021 Voyager Media Awards’ Student Journalist of the Year category, says the fact the intern is paid the living wage is a crucial step in increasing diversity in newsrooms, meaning the opportunity isn’t closed off to those who don’t have the privilege to undertake unpaid work.

“I’ve got oodles of passion for writing and journalism, but seeing it manifest into a reality that pays rent in Auckland allowed me to dream a little bigger and braver,” says Zhang, who is now the editor at Pantograph Punch. “My anxious immigrant parents have also finally stopped wishing I was an orthodontist.”

Muru-Lanning stayed on after her internship and is now a staff writer and the editor of The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter.

In 2021, Naomii Seah joined The Spinoff as its third intern. She says working as an intern allowed her to “dig out the stories that mattered to me as a second-generation Asian New Zealander, and as a recent grad. Stories that addressed the previously hidden housing crisis among students, the poor health of immigrants and why everyone I know has such a hard time pooping on holiday – because The Spinoff isn’t above a bit of a laugh.

“As I settled into my role, I experienced life as a full-time working journalist, building on my skills in the student journalism field in the much faster context of a daily news cycle.”

Earlier this year, Tommy de Silva (Ngāti Te Ata Waiohua) joined The Spinoff as an intern and is now on contract as a staff writer. 

“During my six-month internship, I’ve learnt more about writing than I did across four years at university,” says de Silva. “That upskilling wouldn’t have happened without the caring support I have received at The Spinoff – not only from the editors but also the staff writers and even coworkers from outside editorial. Being surrounded by our articulate, hard-working and intelligent workforce has enabled me to improve. I’m excited to bring the skills I have developed thus far into my new role as a staff writer – but I am just as intoxicated by the thought of further honing my craft with the aid of this mighty tōtara of an organisation.”

Experience 

• The internship is open to all writers who have not yet been employed for six months or more in a major media organisation.
• Applicants must have the right to live and work in Aotearoa to apply, and be based in Tāmaki Makaurau for the internship. 

Next steps

• Please send two writing samples with a cover letter addressed to The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman to jobs@thespinoff.co.nz. 
• Applications are due by August 31, 2023. 

The Spinoff internship is jointly funded by the Auckland Radio Trust, in memory of Vince Geddes, and The Spinoff Members.