Charlottesville Tomorrow is relaunching its internship program in 2025, including a News for Democracy internship to work on our Voter Guide and local government coverage. Through our paid internships, we provide students, early career professionals, and those looking for a career change, exposure to the media industry, practical experience, mentorship and a greater knowledge of our central Virginia communities.
The News for Democracy intern will learn journalism and communications skills, project management, and how to work with diverse communities and build relationships.
We work hard to create a healthy and inclusive work environment that is rethinking how to produce local news, both for the sake of journalists and business staff doing the work and the communities we serve.
While we are outlining role responsibilities and skills, above all we are looking for someone who wants to learn and contribute to the vital work of helping people stay informed.
Who will thrive
We are looking for an intern who is committed to the civic health of central Virginia. You’ll thrive if you enjoy spreadsheets, data, and talking to community members. People with interest or experience in journalism, local governments or service organizations, public health, community organizing or data analysis would be great candidates. There are no age or education requirements for this role, but we do want to understand what skills you already have and how you got them.
What you’ll do
You’ll work closely with our Democracy editor on producing and distributing our annual voter guide. This could involve community surveys, tabling at events, data entry and review, calling registrars and reporting local government stories. (Here’s the 2024 Voter Guide — get to know it before you apply!)
What you’ll learn
You’ll learn how our newsroom works, the basics of fact-checking, how to run a project from start to finish, data and digital publishing skills.
About Charlottesville Tomorrow
Charlottesville Tomorrow is a community-driven, socially conscious news organization. We serve our neighbors by connecting them to each other and to the issues that affect them most.
This is a newsroom at the forefront of local news. It’s a place for talented journalists and big thinkers to dig into mission-driven work that impacts people’s lives regularly.
Our reporters and editors dig deeply into issues that affect our community, regularly producing work that highlights issues often ignored by other media. We center our organization and news processes on our values — truth, community, and equity — and we work to improve the health of our local news community and ecosystem through our inclusive practices in hiring, journalism and partnership.
Our newsroom covers the issues that are most important in our community with a focus on race and equity and reaches a large share of our market through our free email subscriptions, news apps, social media and events.
Commitment: 8 to 12 hours per week, (mostly) in person
Duration: April (start date negotiable) through November, 2025
Compensation: We are building compensation packages to help create equity in the news industry. Our pay for interns is competitive for our local area and among nonprofit news organizations around the country.
Wage: $20/hour
Flexible hours: We pride ourselves on building a newsroom that allows you to do work in the ways and hours that are best for you and the community. While this is an in-person internship, those selected can work with their supervisor to design a schedule that works for them and do some of the work remotely. We conduct daily meetings by video and weekly or project meetings in person, and use Slack and phone to communicate throughout the day.
Advancement: We invest in our team and we want our interns to grow. You will have opportunities to develop your skills and broaden your networks through training and meetings that you and your supervisor identify. We also support our team as they pursue fellowships and leadership programs and seek to grow as professionals.
How to apply
To begin, we would appreciate it if you could send us a written application so we can learn more about you.
- Why are you interested in becoming an intern for Charlottesville Tomorrow?
- What talents do you have that you can share with our team, and what new things are you excited to learn?
To apply, send your resume and/or LinkedIn profile and answers to these questions to hiring [at] thedpi.org, with the subject line “Charlottesville Inclusive Media Journalism Internship.” Please submit your application before Monday, April 21 11:59 a.m. ET. Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we will not be able to answer emailed questions about this role.
