For those of us not in the know, Condé Nast is a multimedia company that has over 20 brands both in print and digital. Their brands that we are probably most familiar with are Glamour, New Yorker, Self, Vogue, W, Teen Vogue, GQ, Lucky, Allure, Women’s Wear Daily and Style.com. A week ago the publishing company announced that it would be closing down its internship program. This news broke many of our teenybopper, fairytale, wish-upon-a-star dreams of being the next Lauren Conrad or Whitney Port gossiping in a cute Teen Vogue office filled to the brim with the trendiest frocks.
Most of us have come to the realization (sorry if I’m the one to break it to you) that The Hills’ and The City’s version of an “internship” is mostly smoke and mirrors. Except for Kelly Cutrone, founder of the successful PR company People’s Revolution. If you haven’t seen her on The Hills, The City, Kell on Earth or America’s Next Top Model, basically all you need to know is that she wrote a book titled: If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You.
So why is Condé Nast nixing the program? About four months ago an intern from W and another from the New Yorker decided to sue the company for being paid less than minimum wage while interning. The New Yorker intern, Matthew Lieb, claimed that he was paid in stipends of only $300-500 dollars for each of the two summers, 2009 and 2010, that he worked for the newspaper. Lauren Ballinger claimed to have received $12 a day working 12-hour shifts at W in 2009. Condé Nast is not the only company that has been sued by its interns. A former Harper’s Baazar intern sued Hearst in February 2012 for similar reasons.
How will Condé Nast function without interns?
A current fashion assistant editor at one of Hearst’s magazines told Fashionista “Every book is different, but if we couldn’t have interns, it would be a shit show… The staff would have to be much more self-sufficient and the magazine would need to hire freelancers galore. Most of our interns weren’t going on errand runs—they were doing the work of an employee. Things that the editors didn’t have time to do themselves.”
Typically both companies as well as employees benefit from internship programs. It ensures that the company is a good fit for the employee and vice versa and it helps reduce turn over. Currently hired interns at Condé Nast will keep their positions until the end of their contracted time, so time can only tell what’s next in store for the company.
What is the future outlook on internships in the fashion and magazine industry?
Internships are overall great for gaining experience and learning what it is like to actually work for that company. Many of us don’t know what we want to do yet, and gaining experience over a summer break to help sort that out is better than diving into a full time job that we are unsure about. The reason they are so covetable and also the reason why many interns leave with horror stories is because most of them actually involve hard and valuable work. Condé Nast might be over their internship program but that certainly doesn’t mean everyone else is. If you’re looking for a writing, design or fashion internship here are great places to start your search at (other than our University’s resources):