The Internship Chronicles: My Time as an Editorial Intern at Redbook

We worked hard on our resumes, applied to every job posting, and stressed over interviews.  But it was all worth it to land our awesome internships!  This is a blog series to highlight the incredible opportunities we had this past summer beginning our careers.  If you worked at an internship this summer, contact us so we can feature your experience in an article! 

I’m not going to lie, I totally felt like Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port on my first day.  I was working at Redbook magazine, and although I was an editorial intern rather than a fashion intern, it all felt pretty glamorous. 

In case you aren’t familiar, Redbook is a national women’s lifestyle magazine.  A brand of the Hearst Corporation, I experienced life inside the stunning Hearst building with elevators that run so fast, coming back to the sloth-like elevators at BC was a mild culture shock.  

So what’s it like to work for a national magazine?  In a word, busy.  As their only editorial intern for three weeks, I had editors coming to me left and right with various tasks.  The staff was busy closing the March issue, and
they needed everyone’s best effort.  I was only too happy to help.

Not every job was glamorous, but there was something to be learned in every task.  For example, during my first week, I was working with Redbook’s creative director, Holland Utley.  She asked me to help collect color chips from a stack of old January and February covers.  At first mention, you might think, “how tedious,” but in reality, it was a small task with a great lesson.  I was able to see all the variations of covers that go into consideration before the final copy.  The different photo choices, various cover lines in many typefaces and colors.  Working for a magazine requires fantastic attention to detail.

A little something I did every day was keep up on the mail.  Again, this may sound like a big, fat, REALLY? but I enjoyed my time spent tearing open envelopes.  I screened articles and sorted the various letters to the editor.  Everyday Redbook gets pitches from writers who are hoping to be published.  Some are experienced freelancers, while others are just trying to get their start.  As a young writer myself, it was a fantastic way to learn how to pitch a story.  A word of advice to you who want to pitch:  be sure you are extremely familiar with the magazine.  Know their editorial philosophy inside and out, each section of the magazine and its style.  Magazines look for very specific content, so be sure your idea fits!

So what is a key skill to being a killer intern?  I found two:  initiative and organization (although it doesn’t hurt to be a wicked fast typist, either!  Interview transcriptions, check!).  Always be on your game to be a hardworking team player.  When you finish a task, rather than waiting for another job to come to you, go to the
job.  Ask what you can help with next.  One responsibility I had was calling PR representatives to request various products that editors chose to be featured in the magazine.  If the call ended in a voice mail, it was up to me to follow-up with more calls and e-mails to make sure that I did everything I could to get the product (or image) into the office by the proper deadline.  It wasn’t about waiting around for them to get back to me, it was about me taking the initiative to reach out to them. 

Organization is absolutely crucial.  With countless products called in, I had to devise a system of keeping track of where the various products stood in my little production line.  One of the editors I worked with, Ashley Niedringhaus, showed me a quick table that she found helpful in the process.  It was perfect, an excellent way to keep track of who I touched base with and where the products were.

Although it was only three weeks long, my time at Redbook was invaluable towards my future career.  All it takes is getting that one foot in the door so that you can prove not only to your employers, but most importantly, to yourself, that you can do it.   And as the internship-hunting season has just begun, I wish all of you the best of luck!
 
Photo Sources:
http://klaw.com/blake-shelton-featured-in-february-issue-of-redbook-magazi/
http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/081114highrise.asp