Madison Commons Interns

2026-2027 Madison Commons Interns

Madison Commons (madisoncommons.org) is an award-winning, hyperlocal news site housed in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication that serves the Madison community by focusing on local news that might not be covered in other outlets. Our interns are a core part of our strategic vision, design and content approach for a platform that gives undergraduate and graduate students the chance to publish reported stories and special projects. We are especially interested in collaborative storytelling that is solutions focused.

Madison Commons interns will learn under the mentorship of a professional managing editor, as well as engaged faculty members Sue Robinson and Stacy Forster. Interns will develop strong writing, editing, and/or production and communication skills along with the ability to meet deadlines and work on a professional team. Interns are required to attend regular editorial meetings (about every other week). 

Interns can expect to follow in the footsteps of past students who have gone on to work for such news outlets as The Wall Street Journal, the Capital Times and Wisconsin Watch. Applicants must be students enrolled in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Society of Professional Journalists named Madison Commons a finalist for Best Independent Online Student Publication for 2024, and Madison Commons reporters have received numerous awards from the Milwaukee Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists.

APPLY HERE BY SEPT 1. Students are welcome to apply for more than one position.

Managing editor internship

The managing editor intern would work with Madison Common's professional managing editor to learn how to run a small media company. This position is a leadership position that involves about 5-6 hours a week. The Managing Editor Intern will be under the supervision of the managing editor. The position runs from September to May, and this intern would earn $3,000 for the year, half in December and half in May with additional freelance and/or credit hours available. Here are the detailed tasks:

• Training in how to edit with our professional editor and learning Associated Press style (for example doing an online workshop)
• Attending meetings deemed necessary
• Completing the first editing pass for all intern content and posting stories and photos to our WordPress site
• Assisting professional editor with editing and posting freelance content in January and some of May
• Newsletter training and writing with publisher
• Annual report training and writing with publisher
• Social media posting and audience engagement marketing
• Check Slack twice a week
• Optional: Writing a story or two and/or helping with an event

Legal reporting internship

The legal reporting intern would cover criminal justice and/or other legal issues in the Madison community for Madison Commons. The intern in this role would create a hybrid of journalism-legal content that would benefit our move toward more community-solutions content and, if the intern is interested, educate fellow interns about media law. This position would be adapted to the individual intern’s specific interests, as well as to current events, but we see this intern as investigating such issues as immigrants needing legal help, politicians trying to circumvent open meeting law or Section 8 tenants needing legal help with landlords. The intern could write stories about such issues or craft resource lists, legal guidance or other kinds of helpful content. People who might be interested are students in SJMC who are considering law school after graduation. We expect this position to take about 2-3 hours a week. In the past, this person has also helped coordinate an event in the spring on whatever issues chosen. The position runs from September to May, but we will consider semester-long commitments. 

Reporting/production internships (3 positions — ideally 2 writing,1 multimedia)

Do you find stories everywhere you turn in Madison? Are you eager to expand your reporting and interviewing skills and produce regular content on a beat or subject area? Or, want to spend your semester taking photos or video or doing data visualizations? The person in these reporting or production roles will produce several “stories” for Madison Commons, as well as content for Madison Commons’ regular features, such as Common Ground. Applicants should provide examples of their reporting/production work and also what kinds of stories or production work you might like to work on. Alternatively, we also welcome a photographer, multimedia, video, visual graphics, or data reporter for these positions! We should note that although we meet every other week, there is not a lot of training happening in terms of technology, but we can help troubleshoot of course. 

The reporting positions — which involve about 3ish hours of work a week — are paid $350 per story or project and require 3 meetings per story cycle – one to brainstorm story ideas, one a writing workshop, and a 1:1 editing meeting. The detailed tasks for the reporting and production interns are as follows:

• Attend 3 meetings for each story (1 story ideas/training, 1 writing workshop, 1 editing workshop) and respond quickly to and work with editors. 
• Check Slack and respond once a week 
• Students will be paid twice a year in December and in May, according to how many stories/meetings accomplished; each story cycle will be about $350, which includes meeting attendance
• Signed copyright form
• Intern stories must each have: 
• at least 3 human sources
• 2 evidence sources such as a database or news article (linked)
• 1+ photos (including a solid horizontal image), plus alt text for photo, caption and photo credit (photos must be copyright free)
• Headline drafted
• Completed submissions check list
• Social media post drafted for each story

Website Technician

We need a Wordpress expert to revamp the Madison Commons website — this limited position would involve selecting a new Wordpress theme, building the site and teaching the staff how to use the new platform as well as other Wordpress-associated tasks. $500 for Fall semester. 

Please submit ALL questions & requested docs. Send questions to Stacy Forster: stacy.forster@wisc.edu or Sue Robinson: robinson4@wisc.edu.