[NPR] Intern, Music & Culture

NPR Music and NPR’s Culture Desk — NPR’s hub for coverage of film, television, books, and music, as well as visual and performing arts — are both creative and curatorial enterprises. This season’s intern fields daily assignments spanning a large range of mediums, genres and ideas, and must work on deadline to synthesize that information into compelling content for a savvy online audience. NPR is looking for an aspiring journalist with airtight editing skills, solid news judgment, strong organizational habits and the ability to think critically and independently about what makes a music story worth telling. For the first half of the internship, you’ll work with the NPR Culture team and for the second half, you’ll work with the NPR Music team. 

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Researching and pulling tape for reporters, radio segments and larger projects

  • Assisting NPR Music’s audience strategist with social planning and scheduling

  • Podcast production on All Songs Considered, New Music Friday, Alt.Latino and other long-form NPR Music audio

  • Managing deadlines from multiple supervisors, adapting to sudden changes of schedule when breaking news hits

  • Communicating with producers at public radio music stations, NPR’s news programs, digital news editors, and contacts at record labels and publicity firm

  • Transcribing, fact-checking and editing interviews; adapting broadcast pieces for presentation as dynamic web articles; improving copy that falls below our editorial standards; crafting compelling headlines and promotional language

  • Web production for a wide array of stories, including segments from NPR’s news shows, public radio music stations, original essays by staff and freelancers, and special editorial packages

  • All work of the intern is to be performed under the close supervision of the host teams

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Strong editing and writing skills

  • Excellent oral and written communication skills

  • Passion for storytelling; an interest in the how and why behind stories in the music industry

  • Working knowledge of content management systems and basic web editing

  • Must be a current student in an accredited degree program or a recent graduate of no more than 12 months from the month of the start of the internship. 

This is a hybrid permitted role. Some aspects of this role include duties that are better performed at an NPR facility. The employee will be required to be onsite at the Washington, DC office at least 10 days a year. The employee must also reside in an NPR supported location based on the number of onsite days they choose.

 

  • This is a temporary (28-week) full time internship.

  • Hourly Rate: The U.S. based anticipated hourly rate for this opportunity is $20.00 per hour.

Applications due June 30, 2025

Jaia Thomas