Journalism Intern Interview Questions: Pitches, Clips and Ethics

Journalism intern interviews at newspapers, broadcasters, magazines and digital newsrooms are built around your clips and your ideas. Editors want proof that you can report, not just write: that you can find sources, verify facts, meet a deadline and pitch stories that fit their audience. Many newsrooms add an editing or news-judgment test, and almost all ask about ethics. This page covers the rounds to expect, the questions that come up with what a strong answer contains, two sample answers, what interviewers expect from an intern, the mistakes that cost offers, and a two-week prep plan.

What the journalism intern interview looks like

Questions that come up, and what strong answers contain

1. Pitch me three stories for our audience. Each in two or three sentences: what is new, why now, why these readers care, who you would talk to and what format suits it, such as text, video or data. Local and specific beats broad and national.
2. Walk me through how you reported this clip. How you found the story, who you interviewed and why, how you verified the key facts, what you left out and what your editor changed.
3. How do you verify a claim you saw on social media? Find the original poster, check the account's history, reverse-search any images, look for independent confirmation from people or records, contact the person directly, and say clearly what is unconfirmed if you report it at all.
4. When would you grant a source anonymity? Rarely, as a last resort, for a source with important public-interest information who faces real risk, and with an editor's agreement. The SPJ Code of Ethics takes the same line and asks journalists to explain the decision to readers.
5. You made an error in a published story. What do you do? Tell your editor immediately and correct it promptly and transparently under the outlet's corrections policy. Hiding it is the one unforgivable answer.
6. What do you read, watch or listen to, and what did we do well recently? Specific stories, including theirs, and why they worked.
7. A key source hasn't called back and your deadline is in an hour. What do you do? Keep trying other routes, report what you can confirm with clear attribution, note that the person did not respond by deadline, and update the story when they do.

Two sample answers

How do you verify a claim on social media?

Say a post claims a local school is closing because of a gas leak. I'd first find who posted it originally and whether they were there. I'd call the school and the district's press office, check the fire department's public updates, and look for a second, independent witness. If there's an image, I'd reverse-search it to make sure it isn't from another event. Until I had confirmation from an official source or two independent people, I wouldn't publish it as fact, and if my editor wanted something up, I'd write only what's confirmed and say what isn't.

Walk me through how you reported a clip.

For the student paper I covered a rise in campus parking fees. I started with the university's budget document, which was public but buried in an appendix, and compared the fee with five years of archived budgets. I interviewed the transportation director, two student commuters and a professor who had raised concerns. My editor pushed me to find out who decided the increase, which led me to the minutes of a committee meeting nobody had covered. The story ran on the front page, and the student government invited the director to a public Q&A the following week.

What interviewers expect from an intern

• Clips that show reporting: interviews, documents, data or work on the ground.
• News judgment: knowing what is new and why it matters to this audience.
• Accuracy and ethics: verification habits, attribution and corrections. The SPJ Code of Ethics rests on four principles: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent.
• Speed and range: writing to length and deadline, and working across text, audio, video or social.

For the full-time version of these questions, see journalist interview questions.

Mistakes that cost offers

• Pitching topics instead of stories: 'climate change' rather than a specific, reportable angle.
• Not reading the outlet before the interview.
• Offering only opinion pieces as clips.
• Hedging on ethics questions, especially about corrections and conflicts of interest.

A two-week prep plan

1. Days 1 to 3: choose your best three to five clips and prepare the reporting story behind each one.
2. Days 4 to 6: read the outlet every day and write five pitches that fit its coverage and formats.
3. Days 7 to 8: practice style basics (the AP Stylebook for most US newsrooms) and a timed rewrite: turn a messy press release into a 300-word news story with the most important facts in the lede, inverted-pyramid style.
4. Days 9 to 10: ethics: read the SPJ Code of Ethics and prepare answers on anonymous sources, conflicts of interest, gifts and corrections.
5. Days 11 to 14: verification drills on viral posts and two mock interviews; if you are also applying for content roles, compare our marketing intern interview questions.

Timing matters as much as preparation: see our internship recruiting timeline, and once you are in, turning an internship into a return offer. Before the last round, prepare your questions to ask at the end of an intern interview.

Where CoPilot Interview fits

Intern interviews reward clear explanations of your own projects and coursework, and that takes practice out loud. CoPilot Interview is an AI interview assistant; its free AI mock interview builds journalism intern questions from your résumé and the job description, reads them aloud, scores each spoken answer out of ten and shows a model answer to compare. The free plan gives 15 minutes a day of live help in sessions of up to 15 minutes, with AI mock interviews included, with no card, which suits a student budget. For real interviews and online assessments, follow your employer's rules.

Disclosure: CoPilot Interview is our product, so weigh what we say about it accordingly.

Frequently asked questions

How many clips do I need for a journalism internship?

Usually three to five, chosen for reporting and variety, unless the application says otherwise. Student media, local outlets and freelance pieces all count.

Do I need to know AP style?

For most US news internships, basic AP style helps, and many newsroom tests check it. The Associated Press publishes and regularly updates the AP Stylebook, so know where to look things up rather than memorizing every entry.

What if I have no published clips?

Create some: write for student media, pitch a local outlet, or report a story yourself and publish it on a simple site. Editors care about the reporting, not the masthead.

Can I use AI tools during an internship interview?

Only where the instructions allow it. Online assessments and many live rounds forbid outside help. Use AI to practice beforehand, and follow your employer's rules.