Let me preface this post by saying that there is no way that I am going to do the topic justice. There’s just no way that I can properly bring to life the story of Lucasfilm when I’m just not all that into Star Wars. I’ve seen the trilogy, and I even saw the one or two of the movies from the prequel trilogy, but I’m not a fanatic. With that said, there are plenty of fanatical Star Wars fans and fans of George Lucas’ work. What he was able to do with late 70s/early 80s technology in the Star Wars movies is incredible, but what’s even more incredible is the excitement that Lucasfilm has been able to build around its franchises—mainly Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Lucasfilm is located in San Rafael, CA, while they also have a large presence in Singapore. They’re a monster name in the film and entertainment industry, and they also have businesses including Industrial Lights & Magic, Lucasarts, Lucasfilm Animation, Lucas Licensing, Lucas Online, and Skywalker Sound. Continue reading about Lucasfilm…
Yesterday I was walking around in a variety/novelty/toy shop. It’s the typical vacation town toy store with all kinds of goofy stuff. As soon as I went through the door I regressed back to about 8 years old. I was picking up everything and playing with it—cap guns, balsa wood airplanes, and the avenging narwhal play set
Looking good is key to interviewing well. If you’re not confident in how you look, you won’t be confident in how you speak. Clothes matter. Luckily, dressing well doesn’t have to be expensive. We’ve worked out deals to get you $50 off your first order at Bonobos and free access to Gilt Groupe’s daily sample sales. You’ll look good, feel good, and still have some money left to celebrate landing a new internship.
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I have quite a bit of traveling ahead of me. I’m hoping to spend a good portion of the time reading books, but I have to admit that I’ve been terrible about reading lately. Running a business makes it hard enough to find time to read, and when I do have time, it seems that my laptop makes it too easy to read articles and blog posts. I’m also torn about whether I should buy more hard copy books or invest in an e-reading device like an iPad or Kindle (it seems the Kindle is the winner for heavy readers). You’re probably thinking about how you don’t care about my reading habits, but they’re actually really important when looked at through the lens of a company like Hachette Book Group. If a big reader like me is reading fewer books, then they have some big challenges ahead of them. And that’s why the publishing industry is an exciting place to be right now. Hachette, which is headquartered in New York City, has a simple mission: “to publish great books well.” From 1837 when Little, Brown and Company was founded (they’re now part of Hachette), up until just a few years ago, the way they went about pursuing that mission didn’t change much. Lately, it’s been changing a lot. Continue reading about Hachette Book Group…
I’m an unabashed Groupon fan. How can I not support the Chicago based company that started the group-buying frenzy? Moreover, I’m just flabbergasted at the amount of value that they’ve been able to build in such a short time. The only problem with creating an extremely lucrative new market when you have little or no IP is that the competitors come out in droves. There are a lot of Groupon wannabes. A lot. Many of them will fall by the wayside as they realize that they’re not capable of building out the kind of sales/business development team needed to grow a group-buying business, but there are a few competitors that seem to be doing quite well. One of them is LivingSocial, which is based in Washington, DC (maybe they should focus on group-bribing of politicians, or is that called lobbying?). They now offer daily deals in 52 cities, and they have nearly $50 million in venture funding. They weren’t profitable yet as of March, but you have to think that they’ll get there soon. Continue reading about LivingSocial…
Everybody acts like social media and social networking is a new development, but it really isn’t. Even 15 years ago there was a web service that enabled you to create profiles, connect with friends, engage with communities, and communicate instantly or asynchronously. It was called Aol, and there’s a good chance that you used it. I feel bad for Aol. They had it all. They were the behemoth of the social web before anyone knew what the social web was, but they were too big and not agile enough. They continued to act like an ISP, and their market share eroded as people transitioned to high-speed connections. Today most people think of Aol as irrelevant, but the NYC based company is doing their best to make a comeback. The good news is that they aren’t living in the past. They’re not trying to win at social networking or being an ISP—they’ve repositioned. They now describe themselves as “a leading-edge web services company, with an offering of premium and niche content sites, world-class tools and platforms.” The focus is on content, and in some ways that’s what Aol was always about—making great content easy to access for the masses. The tough thing for Aol is that they’re already a huge company, so they’re going to have to swing for the fences if they want their new business model to work. Continue reading about Aol…
Earlier this week we took a look at F+W Media, a company that is aggressively targeting niche media markets with books, magazines, trade shows, and digital products. Today we’re going to look at a company that is attacking similar niches, but strictly on the digital side. Prime Publishing is a Northbrook, IL based company that is, as they put it, “building the premiere woman’s lifestyle site on the Web.” I’m not sure I’d go that far, since businesses like DailyCandy and Gilt Groupe seem to be building pretty strong cases for themselves in that regard. Prime Publishing seems to be taking approach more like that of Demand Media. However, that doesn’t mean that Prime Publishing’s business isn’t interesting—”premiere” is just the wrong word. It’s quite obvious to me that their goal is to build easily monetizable digital properties, not to build an overarching woman’s lifestyle brand. When you take a look at their sites, you’ll see what I mean. Continue reading about Prime Publishing…
Since I moved to Chicago a year and a half ago, I don’t think I’ve picked up a newspaper more than a handful of times. However, when I lived in Connecticut I was often reading both the daily regional local newspaper and the bi-weekly super local newspaper for my town. It was always fun to see which of the kids from my elementary school class got arrested in a given week (don’t act like you don’t read the Police Reports first). I often forget how many local newspapers are out there and how many jobs they provide. It may be an industry in flux (or on its way out depending on how you look at it), but it’s still a great place to start your career. This morning I noticed that Twitter was abuzz with word of a paid internship with the Everett Daily Herald (that’s Everett, WA), so I figured that we’d take a look at it. Continue reading about Everett Daily Herald…
The magazine industry is kind of an ugly place to be right now. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some great internship opportunities with periodicals, but the iPad hasn’t saved the industry yet. The problem is that most magazines rely on selling ads to drive revenue since subscriptions almost never cover costs. Unfortunately, ad dollars are moving online where performance can be easily measured. Additionally, many companies have cut back on advertising during the recession. But what if you worked at a magazine that didn’t have to worry about selling ads. At YES! Magazine, that’s exactly how it is. They are a Bainbridge Island, WA based non-profit magazine “that supports people’s active engagement in building a just and sustainable world.” Subscriptions cover about half their costs, and the other half is covered by donations. Since YES! Magazine doesn’t need a profit margin, they can operate way more efficiently than for-profit magazines. Continue reading about YES! Magazine…
I’m sure that you’ve heard a lot in the news about how traditional media companies are having trouble taking their business models online. You may be under the impression that making money from web content is near impossible, but there’s a dirty little secret: it’s not. While companies like the New York Times stick to editorial integrity and chasing Pulitzers, there are companies out there that craft their content with the sole purpose of making money. A perfect example is Santa Monica, CA based Demand Media. They’ve secured more than $355 million in venture capital funding, grown annual revenue to more than $200 million annually, and reached a valuation north of $1 billion all by taking an ROI based approach to content development. How does that work? Demand Media has developed an algorithm that helps them find profitable topics. By using data from Google AdWords, they’re able to estimate the demand for a given piece of content (example: an article and video on how to tie your shoes) along with the revenue that the yet to be developed piece of content could be expected to make given a certain number of pageviews. Continue reading about Demand Media…
Remember that time that you predicted the walk off home run during the baseball game or the fact that your friend would get back together with his girlfriend for the 7th time? Of course you do. It was proof of your psychic abilities. Remember the time that you made a similar prediction but were wrong? Of course not. When you only count your wins and not your losses, it’s easy to have a perfect record. Politicians take advantage of this all the time. The truth is that there aren’t a lot of people out there who are good at predicting things, whether it’s weather, the economy, sports, or any number of other things. Nouriel Roubini may be an exception. He could be insanely “lucky” with the fact that his descriptions and predictions of the current financial crisis were dead on, but you have to give him credit for the amount of detail included in his predictions, like when he said “the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession.” He’s very obviously a brilliant guy, and he’s also the founder of New York City based Roubini Global Economics, a company that provides “a uniquely tailored look at the logic of the global economy” for its clients. Continue reading about Roubini Global Economics…
The magazine business is dying, right? A lot of people seem to think so, and for the most part I agree with them; however, we seem to be seeing a new breed of magazines cropping up. They’re web integrated, extremely well designed, and laser focused on a specific audience. They still sell advertising, but they offer advertisers access to a well-defined audience that general interest magazines can’t compete with. The company behind one of these magazines (Seed Magazine) is Seed Media Group. They’re based out of New York City, and they are a media and technology company built on the premise that science is culture. They’ve been offering a new take on science since 2005, and it seems to be working with them. Continue reading about Seed Media Group…
What’s good? Depending on your mindset right now, that question could have a lot of different answers; however, today we’re talking about GOOD, a company and integrated media platform that makes “a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn.” They’re relatively new on the scene, and they’re breaking a lot of rules when it comes to how to run a media company. For instance, instead of keeping your subscription fees, they’ll donate them to the non-profit of your choice. Since magazines don’t actually make money on subscription fees, they think this is better for business. They’re well known for their “unique editorial perspective,” but they’re even better known for their “fresh visual aesthetic.” I first came across their website GOOD.is to see some of their amazingly gorgeous (and informative) infographics. Continue reading about GOOD…
Before I get started, I’d like to ask you all for a favor. Businessweek is seeking nominations for their list of the Best U.S. Entrepreneurs 25 and Under, and I happen to be under 25 and an entrepreneur. I’d love to be on this list, but only if you think I should be. If One Day, One Internship has helped you with your internship search or you just love what we’re doing, please nominate me. It won’t take more than 90 seconds. Thanks!
If you’ve ever bought a travel guide or any other travel related content, you’ve probably heard the name Arthur Frommer (check him out on Wikipedia). He’s been at the forefront of travel writing since he “wrote and self-published a guidebook called The GI’s Guide to Traveling In Europe in 1955″ while serving in the Army in Germany, and he’s still going strong at the age of 80. He has always been an advocate of traveling inexpensively, so it should be no surprise that his name is on New York City based Budget Travel magazine. I think the name says it all, but in case you’re wondering, Budget Travel is all about travel deals and news, hotel reviews, and vacation tips. Continue reading about Budget Travel…
Last week we took a look at internships with the YES Network, which was fun for me because I’m a huge Yankees fan. On the day that post went up, I got a direct message on Twitter from Charlie O’Donnell that said, “No SNY?” Since my buddy Charlie is a big Mets fan and the CEO of a very cool career related startup called Path 101, I had to give SNY a look—even if Interleague play, a Subway World Series, and Mets fans’ jumping on the Red Sox bandwagon has soured me on the team from Flushing. Still, the Mets are a big deal, they have a beautiful brand new stadium, and they even have their own TV network. SNY is “a 24/7 regional sports and entertainment television network that features up to 125 regular season New York Mets telecasts.” It’s available “in New York, Connecticut, most of New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania,” and it’s also “the official year-round television home of the New York Jets.” Continue reading about SNY…
Who knew that Barnes & Noble owned a publisher? I certainly didn’t, but it makes a lot of sense. If you own the sales channel, you might as well start creating your own product too. That’s why Barnes & Noble acquired New York City’s Sterling Publishing a few years back. It’s allowed them to squeeze more profit out of their dominance in retail book sales. It seems to me that the scope of the types of books that Sterling publishes is expanding, but their main focuses are in puzzles, photograpy, crafts, gardening, and do-it-yourself. If you really want to take a close look at what types of books Sterling Publishing puts out, you can see a list of their imprints with descriptions on the Sterling Publishing About page. Continue reading about Sterling Publishing…
If it’s not already summer for you, it’s gotta be close. You’re ready for a break from the world of higher education, but by the fall you’ll be yearning for that ivory tower. Most of you will resume classes and get your fix, but what if you want to take a Fall internship? How will you cope with so much time away from academia? Lucky for you, The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is based in Washington, D.C., is looking for Fall interns. As they put it, they are “the No. 1 source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators.” Apparently 80,000 academics and 350,000 people in total subscribe to The Chronicle of Higher Education, while their website gets 12 million monthly pageviews. They were even “ranked in the top 10 of most credible news sources by Erdos & Morgan.” Clearly, The Chronicle is the place to go for information about higher education. Continue reading about The Chronicle of Higher Education…
Despite the fact that I’m only 24, I like to consider myself an Internet veteran. I think that I first got online in 1994 or 1995 on Apple’s eWorld. WIRED Magazine beat me to the punch. They’ve been exploring “the ideas, innovations and people that are reshaping our world” since 1993 with a specific focus on technology. I’ve been an occasional reader of Wired (both online and in print), and I’ve always enjoyed their content. They may have been around a long time, but they still seem to be on the cutting edge when it comes to covering new ideas and the next big thing. Despite their techie focus, they’re a part of the struggling publishing industry, and they’ve had to lay people off as recently as November. Maybe that’s why they’re looking for interns. Still, you have to love a brand that has covered the Internet as it has grown up with the Internet. Continue reading about WIRED Magazine…
I’m a sponge for random information. I’m not sure why, but I pick up all kinds of weird facts. Some people find it very impressive, while others think that I have way too much free time. If you’re like me and have a love for weird and unusual information, then you need to check out mental_floss – “where knowledge junkies get their fix.” I’m not a subscriber, but maybe I should be. Their About page does a great job of explaining what it is exactly that they write about. The magazine has 5 sections – Stories to Make You Smile, Feed Your Right Brain, Nurture Your Left Brain, Indulge Your Scattered Brain, and Learn to Spin the Globe. It’s everything that you need to be the king or queen of random information. Continue reading about mental_floss…
I used to be really into Fantasy Baseball. Around this time of year, I’d buy up all kinds of fantasy guides (this was when print publications still had more information than online) and try to figure out whom I was going to draft for my team. Somehow this preparation always seemed to coincide with a day home sick from school. Anyway, the guides that my mom usually bought for me (while I was home sick, remember) were from Sporting News. I’d pore over them for hours and hours and craft my strategy. Charlotte, NC based Sporting News isn’t just about fantasy sports though, they’ve been covering sports since 1886. In fact, they even picked up the name “The Bible of Baseball” because of their extensive coverage of the sport. They recently moved from weekly to bi-weekly, but they’re still a huge name in the world of sports journalism. Continue reading about Sporting News…
If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about old media and new media. Old media is dying and new media is thriving. And if there’s any proof to back that up, it’s that The New York Times – probably the world’s strongest old media brand – is facing severe financial struggles. But they’re still The New York Times. They’re trying to grab hold of new media, and they’re doing a lot of things right, but they’re just too big. New media is all about being small and agile, and large corporations still have a lot of adjusting to do. With that said, it’s evident from The New York Times’ internship postings that they’re moving in the right direction. Continue reading about The New York Times…
Sustainability is big. A lot of people (and companies) are jumping on the green bandwagon for a wide variety of reasons. One place that a lot of people are starting to adopt green practices is in the home. That makes sense, because our homes reflect who we are. If we care about the environment, then we certainly want to show it in where we live. It’s also important to make sure that our homes are a healthy place to live. I certainly didn’t live in a “natural home” in college, and I’m sure that most of you don’t either, but I wouldn’t be surprised if more and more campuses are starting green initiatives for on-campus housing. Whether you’re building your own green home or you’re helping your college make decisions about a new initiative, where do you go for information on green living? Natural Home Magazine is one place. They’re exactly what they say they are – a magazine about natural homes. Their tagline is “Living Wisely. Living Well.” Continue reading about Natural Home Magazine…
Being a travel writer is a dream job for a lot of people, but it’s not an easy field to be successful in. That’s because everyone wants to (and thinks that they can) be a travel writer. Sure, I’ll go to Europe for 3 weeks, write an article, and pay for my trip. Yeah right! You can blog about your travels, but once again making it pay is a completely different story. Today’s internships aren’t paid, but they will give you some much needed experience in travel writing that you’ll need if you eventually want to make a career out of it. Offbeat Guides is a San Francisco based startup that has taken a new approach to travel guides. Their product offers a level of customization that isn’t present in other guides. You give them some basic information about yourself and your travel plans, and they’ll create a guide that is specific to your needs. It looks awesome. Continue reading about Offbeat Guides…
Sometimes I can be a dunderhead. When I am behind the wheel of a car, I can get irrationally angry at having to share the road with pedestrians and bikers. And when I’m walking or riding a bike, I can get irrationally angry at having to share the road with cars. I can’t be right on both accounts, so the problem is obviously with me (or maybe with the government for not setting up a better transportation system). When it comes down to it, though, it’s pretty obvious that bikers and pedestrians are second-class citizens to drivers. Cars dominate the roads, and the burden of responsibility falls on those who are biking or walking to stay alert and avoid getting hit by a couple thousand bounds of fast-moving metal. The Thunderhead Alliance for Biking and Walking is a Washington, DC based non-profit advocacy organization that stands up for the rights of bikers and walkers by “strengthening and supporting bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations” across the country. They’re a meta-non-profit. organization – an organization for organizations. Continue reading about Thunderhead Alliance for Biking and Walking…
Sorry for the delayed post today. For some reason the Internet connection in our office wouldn’t connect to our server, which meant that we couldn’t publish today’s post this morning. I trudged across town through the snow in 12 degree weather to make sure that you got your internships today.
Niche communities have always been a big part of what the Internet is all about. In the olden days if you lived in a small town and had eclectic interests, you’d have a really tough time meeting people with the same interests. Those days are over. Now you can find an online community for anything – anything. Although today’s company isn’t all that odd in the market that they target, they’re certainly focusing on a group that has been forgotten until now. Savvy Auntie is “the first community for cool aunts, great aunts, godmothers, and all women who love kids.” We’re not sure whether they’ve sided on the pronunciation “ant” or “awnt,” but either way they’ve decided to own the market for enthusiastic aunts.
In a lot of ways having an internship is like having a savvy auntie. If you want to have both, then you’re in luck. Savvy Auntie is currently looking for a number of interns. They have internships available in Video Production, Content, Gifts, and Community. The internships are unpaid, require 10-20 hours of work per week, and are located somewhere in New York/Northern New Jersey (they don’t make it very clear). They also require that their interns own a laptop. There isn’t a whole lot of information available on these internships; however, you can check out the profiles of Savvy Auntie’s current interns. If you think it would be cool to work with a former Fortune 500 executive to build a community of savvy aunts, then send a cover letter and resume to Jobs@savvyauntie.com. If you’re apply for the Content internship, be sure to include 3 writing samples.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
Do you think a community for aunts and other women who love children is a sustainable business idea?
I think that I’ve told you before that I don’t listen to a lot of music, and I stopped reading about music a long time ago. That means that I’m not very familiar with Pitchfork, but from what I hear, they’re a “a Chicago-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews.” That came from Wikipedia, because Pitchfork has somehow forgotten to include an About page on their site. Ok, so Pitchfork isn’t just about music. It’s about indie music – mostly indie rock but also “electronic, pop, hip hop, dance, folk, jazz, metal, and experimental music.” Beyond the daily e-zine that they publish, Pitchfork has also recently launched Pitchfork.tv, their take on online tv. Continue reading about Pitchfork…
I’ve said it before, and I’m going to keep saying it. Newspapers are in trouble, and interning with a newspaper that is stuck in the pre-Internet world is a waste of time. You’ll be learning skills that are quickly becoming obsolete. Social media is the future of news, but an internship with some blog may not be the reputable resume item that you’re looking to add to your resume. So what do you do? You find a newspaper that gets it – one that is embracing the future of news on the web wholeheartedly. A good example is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, better known as STLtoday.com on the web. They seem to have some pretty cool internship offerings that will help you build skills that will still be useful when you graduate and need to look for a job (things are seriously moving that fast these days). Continue reading about St. Louis Post-Dispatch…
I’m not going to stop harping on the fact that the future of media is online, and that any journalism student who wants to get hired right out of college needs to be familiar with the “new media.” ReadWriteWeb is a perfect example of new media. It’s a “blog that provides Web Technology news, reviews and analysis,” and it’s the world’s 14th most linked to blog according to Technorati. ReadWriteWeb has over a quarter of a million subscribers, and they continue to break news relevant to web nerds like me. Whether you’re already a web nerd, or you’re just realizing that you need to be one to get a job, an internship with ReadWriteWeb might be just what you’re looking for Continue reading about ReadWriteWeb…
The great thing about living in downtown Chicago is that I’m constantly bombarded with new ideas for companies to feature here. In suburban Connecticut most of what I saw when I was driving around was trees. Here in Chicago there are few trees in sight, but plenty of businesses, billboards, and buses (with advertising on the side, of course). There are also plenty of taxes. Sales tax is 10.25% and the parking tax is 28%, but likely soon to be 33%. This is on top of already outrageous monthly parking fees, so it’s no wonder that there’s a Zipcar location just a hundred yards down the street from my building. Zipcars are kind of like rental cars, but better. They’re more affordable (I think, but I haven’t done the math), they’re intended for residents instead of travelers, they’re green, and you don’t need to be 25 to take them for a ride. It’s kind of like having a friend with a car except you have to pay that friend whenever you use his car. Continue reading about Zipcar…
Although many people don’t realize it, almost every non-profit organization spends a considerable amount of time and resources on raising money. Some call it development, and others call it fundraising. Whatever you call it, it’s time and resources that charitable organizations have to direct towards something other than their missions. Global Impact is a non-profit organization that makes it its mission to raise money and awareness for other non-profit organizations. With the money that it raises, Global Impact works directly with U.S. based international organizations to help the world’s most vulnerable people. Despite the fact that Global Impact is all about fundraising, they still think that it’s important to limit administrative costs, which is why they’re able to give away 88% of the money that they raise while only 5.3% of their spending goes to administration and fundraising. Much of Global Impact’s proficiency in fundraising comes from their participation in and promotion of workplace giving programs. Global Impact is very selective about where their money goes, so member organizations are expected to meet very specific criteria before they are able to receive funds. Global Impact has Continue reading about Global Impact…
Back when I was in high school (yes, part of that was in the 90s), I thought that I was really savvy when it came to using the Web to do better in my English classes. I found online, public-domain versions of many of the books that I was reading. The best part was that these were searchable, so if I needed to find a quote or a specific passage, all I had to do was remember a key word or two. It was fantastic. A lot has changed since then, and I don’t even know the extent of what academic resources are available online now. What I do know is that it’s not fair that today’s students have access to sites like Shmoop, when I couldn’t even dream of something like it. What is Shmoop? It’s hard for me to describe briefly, so maybe you should take the Tour de Shmoop. Continue reading about Shmoop…
