The Minnesota Star Tribune is an innovative modern media organization building on an extraordinary 157-year legacy. With seven Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other accolades, we stand as a beacon of journalistic excellence in Minnesota. Together, we are the heart and voice of the North.
Our mission is to build a better Minnesota by connecting us with the people, ideas, and stories that strengthen our communities. We’re seeking dynamic leaders who are passionate about journalism and democracy to help shape this future. If you are excited about reinventing one of our state’s most trusted institutions and leading us into a new era of growth and excellence, we want to hear from you.
Job Summary:
The Minnesota Star Tribune offers a 10-week summer internship with our newsroom data journalism team. We select talented, driven college seniors and graduate students who are ready to put their data skills to practice. We expect our interns to come to us with skill and leave with polish and invaluable experience from a major-market newsroom. Interns are paid $850 a week for 40 hours.
The Minnesota Star Tribune is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace, and it encourages qualified applicants of all backgrounds to apply. Candidates should recognize that legacy news operations must merge diversity-and-inclusion aspirations with audience needs to succeed and support that goal.
We expect our data team intern to have:
- Solid news judgment.
- Strong organizational and project management skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write stories.
- Fluency in at least one data analysis tool, such as spreadsheets, R or Python.
- Some experience with other data tools, such as SQL, Datawrapper, Flourish, OpenRefine.
We aim to provide this person with opportunities to learn from our three-person data team and practice not only their data analysis and visualization skills, but also reporting and writing. In addition, they would be able to partner on stories with newsroom reporters and get an inside look at how a data team operates within the larger newsroom.
Qualifications:
A solid journalism background combined with an eagerness to learn and experiment are paramount. Candidates should have experience in using data to tell stories, excellent communication skills, and a proven track record of collaboration. Candidates should be comfortable using at least one data analysis tool and the willingness to build additional skills, as needed. Preference to anyone interested in pursuing a full-time data journalism position in the future.
Top candidates can demonstrate they’re ready to make the most of this opportunity. The term will be early June to early August.
Your application, which must be uploaded by Nov. 1, should include:
- Five to 10 links to news stories or other published content that show your data skills and/or data stories/projects you did on your own or in collaboration with other students for a class. Please include news stories that also display your writing and other reporting abilities, even if those do not include data analysis. Applications without these submissions will not be considered.
- A memo describing the work you did for each of your submissions that involved data analysis/visualization. This is especially crucial for stories you did in collaboration with others, so we can discern your role from what others did.
- A resume detailing your journalism experience, and three references, including their titles, phone numbers and email addresses.
- Two letters of recommendation. At least one of those letters should come from an editor who has seen you work in a professional environment on deadline. Please do not submit letters of reference from fellow student journalists.
- Reference letters can be attached to your application or emailed to newsrecruiter@startribune.com with your name in the subject line.
Questions? Email Colleen Stoxen, Deputy Managing Editor, colleen.stoxen@startribune.com.
Please do not email your application; to apply, you must upload here.