The Statesman Journal and Register-Guard are hiring three outdoors journalism interns this year.The positions allow for exploring and writing about Oregon’s wildest places.
The internships require working 40 hours per week for 10 weeks, for periods roughly in the spring (mid-April to early June), summer and late summer into autumn of 2023. Pay is $15 per hour. There is room for flexibility within those timeframes and we anticipate some overlap.
The interns will work with longtime Statesman Journal outdoors reporter Zach Urness to craft stories, podcasts and videos that center on issues such as wildfires, outdoor recreation and the environment. In addition, the intern will get the chance to travel to unique outdoor destinations and write about what makes those places special.
A key piece of the internship is producing and editing episodes of the Explore Oregon Podcast.
Applications are being accepted now for the spring internship and should be submitted by March 31 for the summer and fall internships. Email zurness@statesmanjournal.com with questions.
“We’re looking for candidates with some journalism experience and strong writing and reporting chops, but who also love the outdoors and telling important stories,” Urness said. “Hard work and hustle are the most important attributes.”
The first year of the internships was 2021. Interns Wesley LaPointe, a student at the University of Oregon, and Eddy Binford-Ross, a South Salem High graduate and Georgetown University student, produced work that spanned an array of topics.
Binford-Ross traveled to an abandoned fire lookout, wrote about efforts to restore a disappearing trail in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness and took a deep dive into the growing threat of urban wildfires faced in the Willamette Valley. LaPointe earned an internship at the LA Times a summer after his experience at the Statesman Journal.
In 2022, intern Skyla Patton led podcasts about hunting chanterelle mushrooms, reported on wildfires in on the border of southern Oregon and wrote about spending the night in a fire lookout. Intern Makenzie Elliott wrote about violence at campsites, podcasted about the best adventures near Sisters and is now the Eugene Register-Guard’s breaking news reporter.
