Intern: the new magazine for interns, by interns

As it’s July, thousands of students and recent graduates are currently running around fetching coffee, picking up dry-cleaning and taking on a whole host of other menial tasks as they enjoy (or is that endure?) a summer internship. And if they’re lucky, they might even learn a thing or two.

But while some interns are handsomely rewarded for their hard work (it was revealed recently that Google pays its interns around £4,000 a month), more often than not payment comes in the form of a reference and a “cheers”.

Alec Dudson, 29, is only too familiar with such positions. Having graduated from the University of Manchester with a master’s degree in sociology, he completed unpaid internships at various magazines that failed to secure a job. So he decided to start his own magazine and knew exactly what his focus would be.

“Intern is a new independent print magazine focused on the intern culture of the creative industries and the bright talent that fills those often unpaid positions,” Dudson says. “The publication’s intentions are twofold: firstly, to be a tactile showcase for the brightest interns and unpaid talent entering the creative fields as professionals, and, secondly, to initiate an important debate about the current culture of internships and its potential implications for the creative industries.”

Dudson hopes to pay his contributors, who come from all over the world. A Kickstarter page set up for Intern has so far raised £4,165 of its £5,500 target. As well as paying the writers, the money will be used to fund the initial print run of the magazine, which, far from resembling an amateur fanzine, looks to be a confident, atmospheric mag. It certainly beats getting the cappuccinos in all summer.