Internships - Newsroom
Newsroom Internship
Lookout Santa Cruz
Community & Commerce Team
Internships, 2022-23
Lookout Santa Cruz is a digital media site whose fundamental mission is to serve Santa Cruz County with a new and higher standard of news, information and community engagement. Lookout Santa Cruz is well diversified in its distribution channels, reaching emerging audiences through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Apple News, Newsbreak and more.
We cover the whole community, from UCSC-driven North County to the agricultural-dominant South County. We’ve focused on the issues of the day – first, COVID, and now affordability/homelessness, education and equity, public health, food and food insecurity – amid increasing government accountability reporting. We’re also full-service, with best-in-class arts, entertainment and culture coverage, and a growing set of guides.
Among our top series work:
- CZU Fire Recovery, as 900 locals who lost homes try to rebuild
- Unhoused Santa Cruz, addressing our acute local crisis
- Unsung Santa Cruz, recognizing those who have quietly gone above and beyond.
In all of our work, we prize smart, thoughtful, connect-the-dots reporting and storytelling with voice. Our readers increasingly depend on us to explain the why and how of the many community issues swirling around them.
Lookout Santa Cruz has begun the local news reboot that communities around this country need now more than ever. Founded by news analyst Ken Doctor in late 2020, its innovation is being watched around the country — both in its mobile-first local news product and service, and in its borrowed-and-scaled-down business model from the New York Times.
What you would be doing:
- Working with Lookout’s newsroom, its editors and correspondents, on reporting, data, cultural events and visual storytelling.
- Specific emphases will vary, depending on an intern’s abilities and knowledge and the needs of Lookout.
What we’re looking for:
- Fundamental reporting and writing skills
- A passion for revived, meaningful local journalism.
- A tech-savvy person who can help us reach the audience of now and the future, and be sharply focused on that mission — particularly the mobile experience.
- A creative problem solver. Being solutions oriented is critical to Lookout’s culture and plays an important role in our decision-making process.
- A detail-oriented and self-motivated team player with great communication. You have identified the things that drive you — and sometimes wake you up in the middle of the night — and you are planning to go places in this burgeoning new media landscape.
Bonus points for…
- Bilingual English/Spanish
- Experience working with social media campaigns
- Experience with analytics tools and key metrics/KPIs
- Expertise and ideas in TikTok, Facebook and Instagram best practices
- Knowledge of web development and production
- Demonstrated creativity in story idea creation
- Digitally driven research abilities
If you’re looking for these things, you should apply:
- A fast-moving digital news environment
- Learnings about digital tools/software that now power news operations
- Meaningful experience that will grow your skill set and resume
- A startup environment where everyone has a voice and helps formulate every part of the company (yes, even interns).
- A collaborative, ever-changing work environment where no one day is quite the same.
How to apply
Please email a letter explaining why you’re interested in working with Lookout along with a resume with references to these three addresses:
- internships@lookoutlocal.com
- ken@lookoutlocal.com
- giovanni@lookoutlocal.com