You know how I know that I’m cool? I saw the Bed Intruder Song video (if you haven’t seen it yet, watch the original version first) on YouTube before you and pretty much everyone else who saw it. Pop culture fluency used to be based on your generation, but now it seems that it has more to do with when you last signed online. If you want to be as cool as I am, you may want to start using BuzzFeed. It’s a website and New York City based company that publishes and tracks viral media. They won’t tell you what’s hot this year or this week, but what’s hot right now this second. It may not seem all that important now, but when you’re out with your friends and they’re referencing the latest YouTube craze, you don’t want to have to sneak away to the bathroom to watch on your phone. Continue reading about BuzzFeed…
I honestly can’t tell you when the last time that I picked up a newspaper was. It’s not that I’m sequestering myself from current events, it’s just that I do most of my media consumption online because it’s so easy. Obviously, attitudes like mine are causing a lot of distress in the newspaper industry, but I think there’s still a great business in delivering quality content. One area where online media kicks traditional media’s butt is in grabbing eyeballs. Sensationalism sells, and most newspapers still haven’t grasped that. However, tabloids, especially those based in New York, have always known how to get attention. That’s why there’s a good chance that I’ll pick up a copy of the New York Daily News if it’s sitting on a table at the coffee shop that my parents like to take me to back in Connecticut (where I’m headed this morning). It may not be the most reliable source for information or the most academic, but you have to love the fact that the New York Daily News understands the psychology of its readers and uses that knowledge to convince them to read. It doesn’t matter how great the writing is if nobody reads it. Continue reading about New York Daily News…
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…
When I decided to build Found Your Career, I pulled in Jason Seiden to tell the employer’s side of the story. He knows what it takes to succeed in the workplace, and he has a new book about just that called Super Staying Power: What You Need to Become Valuable and Resilient at Work
I don’t need to tell you all that the publishing industry has hit a rough spot. All you need to do is look around and see the iPads, Kindles, and Nooks. For hundreds of years the industry has used the same method delivery, but suddenly they’re losing control of how their content is distributed. This is really scary for a lot of people, but they’re forgetting something important: it’s all about the content. And the more targeted your content is to a specific audience, the better. The General Interest publication is a dying breed, and niche media is what it’s all about. F+W Media is a Cincinnati, OH based publisher that gets this. As they put it, F+W Media “offers the highest quality content in a wide variety of formats—from print to digital to video—to highly passionate enthusiast communities.” That’s a model for success that many in the publishing industry are scared of. Continue reading about F+W Media…
This one is going to scare the crap out of some of you. If you’re thinking of pursuing a career in journalism, writing, blogging, editorial, or a similar area, you might want to start looking over your shoulder. The computers are coming. We’ve already heard about companies like Demand Media churning out tons of content with cheap labor, but now Narrative Science thinks that they can do it with no labor (except the programmers who write the software). They’re a five-month old company based in Evanston, IL, and to be honest, beyond that, I don’t know much. I first heard about them from this article in BusinessWeek, and I knew that I had to share the story with all of you. Right now, Narrative Science is focused on the field of sports. More specifically, they’re turning box scores into short news stories. I’m sure some journalists are up in arms about this, but the truth is that if you can be replaced by a computer, then it’s your own damn fault. Continue reading about Narrative Science…
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…
We’ve featured nearly 800 internship programs since we started. Browse through all of them and see what you’ve missed.
I don’t read a lot of magazines. Why be forced to read a certain set of articles when you can have the Internet bring you only the best? I make an exception for a few magazines, and Inc. is one of them. It’s a fantastic resource for small business owners, and it also has to be the best magazine for job and internship seekers out there. That may seem surprising considering that Inc. doesn’t typically focus on career issues, but when you look at their content, you’ll see why. The Inc. 5000, the magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies in the country, is my undisputed favorite resource for finding exciting, under the radar companies that might be hiring interns. I’m also a big fan of their annual feature on America’s Coolest Internships. Since I find Inc. so helpful for internship searching, I logically wondered whether Inc., which is based in New York City, has any internships. Luckily, they do. Continue reading about Inc….
One of the cool things about doing what I do is that I get a lot of interview requests from media outlets. At least once a week I’m talking to someone who is writing about entry level employment or internships. What’s even cooler is when someone writes about me, and doesn’t even interview me. I’ll suddenly see a Google Alert pop up for my name or brand name, and I’ll click the link to see who’s talking about me. One of the most exciting mentions came from the journal Science and their Science Careers Blog. In case you didn’t know, Science, the Science Careers Blog, and many other publications and newsletters are published by The American Association for the Advancement of Science. The AAAS is a Washington, DC based “non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association.” They work in areas likescience policy, international programs, and science education, and Continue reading about American Association for the Advancement of Science…
It shouldn’t be a surprise that we haven’t covered many internships in real estate over the past couple years. Demand for real estate is way down, and the demand for college students to intern in real estate has to be down too. Luckily, there have been a few bright spots during the recession. Some real estate based startups have been able to gain market share from struggling competitors, and the demand for real estate based content has remained strong. I think it’s safe to say that media coverage of the real estate and mortgage markets has only increased over the past few years. The LTV Group, a Dallas, TX based “end-to-end communications firm spanning publishing and creative services,” has taken advantage of the growth in market for real estate related for information. The company consists of three subsidiaries, HousingWire, REOInsider, and LTV Creative. The latter is a full-service marketing communications firm, while the other two are magazines and websites that put LTV Creative to work. Continue reading about The LTV Group…
I don’t typically read fashion magazines, but I’ve looked through a few in my day. One thing that I’ve noticed is that there are more ads than content. That would usually be a problem, except for the fact that people who read fashion magazines are often as interested in the ads for products as they are in the editorial. Why not just combine the two? That’s what Net-A-Porter did. They’re a London based “premier online luxury fashion retailer” with a large operation in New York City. They’ve been around for 10 years, and they’ve thrived through a bust by combining online retail with fashion editorial. It’s kind of like J. Peterman from Seinfeld, but not nearly as goofy. Continue reading about Net-A-Porter…
Yesterday I spent a few hours poring over an issue of Fast Company that includes their list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.” It is loaded with companies that I’d never heard of, so I picked out the most interesting ones and checked to see what their internship opportunities looked like. Luckily, I found quite a few prospects, so you’re in for some really cool stuff over the next few weeks. One of the companies that I found was VICE, a New York City magazine and media conglomerate that publishes a “superedgy hipster bible.” Their content is about as safe for work as American Apparel advertisements, which is partially because AA is one of their main advertisers. The interesting thing about VICE is that they are a huge company—they have a print circulation of nearly a million magazines and their sites get 3.5 million monthly unique visitors. This has sparked growth from $45 million in revenue in 2008 to $64 million in 2009. Continue reading about VICE…
If you woke up this morning with a sore throat, what would you do? I bet many of you would get on the computer, type your symptoms into Google, and probably end up on WebMD trying to self-diagnose. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing (maybe we should leave the diagnosing for the doctors), but it’s how most of us operate these days. We have a remarkable amount of medical information available at our fingertips, and WebMD, which is based in NYC with a significant presence in a number of other cities, is responsible for a lot of it. They consider themselves “the leading provider of health information services, serving consumers, physicians, other healthcare professionals, employers and health plans.” If you read that closely, you probably noticed that WebMD’s business goes well beyond their consumer facing website. Continue reading about WebMD…
I’ll admit it, I don’t read The Economist regularly, but plenty of my friends do—mostly the smart ones. It’s a magazine (they call themselves a newspaper, but you’d likely identify it as a magazine) that stands apart from other periodicals in a variety of ways. It’s not the topics that they cover—they offer both news coverage and analysis and opinion on business and politics—it’s more the way that they cover those topics. The most interesting thing about The Economist is the fact that all of their articles are written anonymously. It’s about “a belief that what is written is more important than who writes it,” but you have to like the fact that anonymity allows the writers the freedom that they need to address topics in the ways that they should be addressed. The Economist is all about free trade and free markets, yet it “considers itself the enemy of privilege, pomposity and predictability.” The Economist is based in London, but they are very much an international business and magazine. Continue reading about The Economist…
I don’t know if you’ve ever spent anytime on the Appalachian Trail, but if you haven’t, you should. The trail stretches from Georgia to Maine, while the range of mountains touches as far south as Alabama and as far north as Newfoundland. It’s 1,500 miles of natural beauty that is prime territory for naturalists and adventurers. Back in 1876 there was a club called the Appalachian Mountain Club started in Boston for people who enjoyed the range. Now the club consists of more than 12 chapters and 100,000 members—it’s the “nation’s oldest outdoor recreation and conservation organization.” They’re still based in Boston, and they’ve developed into a non-profit that promotes “the protection, enjoyment, and understanding of the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of the Appalachian region.” Continue reading about Appalachian Mountain Club…
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…
I have no idea how I’ve made it through nearly two years of posts on One Day, One Internship without featuring ESPN. I covered ESPN’s entry level jobs on One Day, One Job, but never took the time to look at their internship program. As you probably know, ESPN is the “worldwide leader in sports.” They’re a huge media company with multiple television stations, a magazine, and an enorous web presence—they also have branded restaurants. When it comes to sports coverage, there’s no competition; ESPN is king. They also have an amazing employment brand not only because they offer jobs and internships in sports, but also because of their awesome commercials that take place in their Bristol, CT office. I have to imagine that internships at ESPN are some of the most sought after internships out there. Continue reading about ESPN…
I was traveling yesterday, so I scheduled yesterday’s post and hopped on a plane. Little did I know that my server would somehow forget to do what I told it. Sorry! If you’re looking for yesterday’s post, you can find it here. (Or if you’re reading by e-mail, just scroll down.)
There are a lot of people who aren’t very thrilled with healthcare in the United States. Yes, it can be atrociously expensive, but at least we have access to pretty much any medical procedure out there. Whether it’s something very basic or something that has never been tried before, the US certainly has the medical infrastructure to get the job done. There are plenty of countries in the world where even the most basic medical care is out of reach, and there are other countries where basic medical care becomes out of reach due to a crisis. That’s where New York City based Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) comes in. They provide “aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters.” Doctors Without Borders does this by recruiting both medical and non-medical personnel to travel abroad to offer a level of medical assistance that is well beyond what is typically available. Continue reading about Doctors Without Borders…
Being a newspaper these days is tough. I’d imagine it’s especially tough in a place like San Francisco where people embrace new technologies so quickly. Although I’d also expect those early adopters to be just the types who are heavy users of newspapers. I’m not sure where that leaves the San Francisco Chronicle, but they do seem to have a strong history of adapting to changes in their business model. According to Wikipedia, they first went online with SFGate.com in 1994, and now they’re moving towards a focus on subscriptions instead of advertising to generate revenue. I’m not sure that’s going to work long term, but you have to like the flexibility that the San Francisco Chronicle has shown over the years. It’s no surprise that they remain one of the largest newspapers in the country. Continue reading about San Francisco Chronicle…
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…
I have to admit that I pretty much stopped watching local news after going to school and living in Central New York for four years. I swear that every night the news would come on at 11 PM, and there would be a new crew reporting live from a barn that caught on fire. Here in Chicago it’s more likely to be a shooting or possibly some government corruption. I’m sure that your area has its own regular story. Usually I like to talk about how the Internet is kicking traditional media’s butt, but that hasn’t been true when it comes to local stuff. TV and newspapers still own the local market, which is why NBC Chicago and Telemundo Chicago would be pretty cool places to intern. (Telemundo is a local network much like NBC 5 Chicago, but it’s tailored to a Spanish speaking audience.)They’re still the place to go for local news (whether it’s on the web or on the tube). Continue reading about NBC and Telemundo Chicago…
Although we don’t have a Veterans Day themed post for today, we hope that you’ll celebrate by thanking a Vet and possibly checking out our post from last year on internships at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Earlier this week we took a look at Seed Media Group, a relatively new company that is finding success in an otherwise declining industry by focusing on a specific niche. Another company that is taking a similar approach is EatingWell Media Group, which is based in Charlotte, VT (near Burlington). They are “a fast-growing, independent communications company producing an award-winning national consumer magazine, high-quality food and nutrition-related books, a content-rich website, e-mail newsletters, and serving content to strategic partners with other electronic media.” It’s all about healthy eating without sacrificing the enjoyment of food. Some people think that those two things are mutually exclusive, but EatingWell Media Group has built its business on delivering content that proves otherwise. Continue reading about EatingWell Media Group…
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…
One thing that I find really exciting is the fact that there are cool startups popping up all across the country. Yes, Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest are still the primary places for technology focused companies to open up shop, but that’s becoming less and less true. That’s why I was intrigued by Fanzter—they’re web products company based in Collinsville, CT. Considering the fact that I’m from Connecticut and have never heard of Collinsville (it’s near Hartford), you have to consider it an unusual location for a startup (they would tell you it’s optimally located between Boston and New York City). Fanzter’s first (and only current) product is called Coolspotters. It’s a website that “makes it easy to discover and buy the products, brands, and fashions being used by your favorite celebrities – in their real lives, and in movies and television.” It reminds me a lot of what Delivery Agent is doing. Continue reading about Fanzter…
It feels pretty good to be talking about a Boston based newspaper today knowing that they have to report on another trip to the World Series for the Yankees; although, I’m sure they’d much rather be publishing stories on what Dustin Pedroia and Jonathan Papelbon are doing during their offseason (possibly watching the World Series from their couches). Now that I’ve gotten in my dig at Red Sox fans, we can take a look at The Boston Globe, Boston’s most widely read newspaper. The paper is owned by the New York Times and has an excellent web presence at Boston.com. Much like other newspapers the Globe has had significant financial struggles, and The New York Times even threatened to shut the paper down if the paper’s union didn’t accept major concessions. Apparently those problems have been worked out, and The Boston Globe is now on more stable ground. At least that’s what the fact that they’re hiring would indicate. Continue reading about The Boston Globe…
Back when I was looking at colleges, I had to rely on traditional guidebooks to get relevant information like average SAT scores, whether freshmen are allowed to have cars, and what the food is like. Finding solid information online was pretty much out of the question, and none of the guidebooks that I looked at seemed to have a good read on what the campus was really like. Then along came College Prowler in 2002 (after I was already at Cornell, which turned out great). They’re a Pittsburgh, PA based company that aims “to be the most accurate, complete, and honest resource on colleges and universities across the United States.” Although those are their words, I think that a more accurate description of what they do (also in their words) is:
No university affiliations. No half-truths. No out-of-touch authors who haven’t been in school for decades. A class project turned company, College Prowler produces guidebooks that are written by actual college students and covers the things students really want to know.
College Prowler’s guides are what college guidebooks should have always been. Unfortunately, it took a long time for anyone to realize how big the need for “real” information was. Along with guidebooks, College Prowler has also built an awesome web resource to help high school students make informed college choices. The best part is that they’ve recently made all of their online content free. Continue reading about College Prowler…
Social networking is a new thing, right? Not at all. Social networks have been around almost as long as the Internet. They’ve just become way more mainstream in recent years. Take Redwood City, CA based Care2 for example. They’re an online social network that aims “to help people make the world a better place,” and they’ve been doing it since 1998. That’s impressive, not only because it means that they were early to social networking, but also because it means that they survived the dot com bust of the early 2000s. “Making the world a better place” used to be strictly the territory of non-profits, but now we’re seeing more and more companies like Care2 that are choosing to be B Corporations. That means that they can do good and build a profitable businesses at the same time. That’s exactly what Care2 is doing with their “more than 50 employees, 11 million members, 400 nonprofit partners and hundreds of responsible advertisers making a difference.” Continue reading about Care2…
