R.I.P., Conde Nast Internship Program

In late October, the publishing company Condé Nast announced that its internship program will end in January 2014. The move came after two former interns, Lauren Ballinger from W Magazine, and Matthew Lieb from The New Yorker, filed lawsuits against the magazine publisher this June, claiming they were paid below minimum wage. While anti-unpaid interns advocates champion the end of Condé Nast’s internship program as a success, others worry that many students might have a harder time getting their foot in the door.

Lieb and Ballinger sued Condé Nast over claims that the company violated federal and state labor laws during the internships they held in the summers of 2009 and 2010. Lieb was paid $300 to $500 for his two summers at The New Yorker. Ballinger was paid $12 a day for shifts that lasted 12 or more hours.

“Suing a company for lack of pay or over-working after agreeing to an internship – that you must have had some inclination was going to include both these things – seems like an affliction of character,” said Alex Vazquez, a Parsons student and fashion and editorial intern at Hearst Magazines’ Town & Country. “[However] I was not in this intern’s position and am sure that things must have been quite serious for the issue to go this far.”

Emily Johnson, 21, a Lang senior and current intern at Condé Nast’s The New Yorker, felt more aware after the lawsuit that Condé Nast wouldn’t let its interns work over 35 hours a week, or work outside of the office.

“They wouldn’t let me start until I had all of the signed paperwork that said I was going to get school credit for the internship,” Johnson said. “They already had some sense of the impact of the lawsuit.”

Internship responsibilities usually range from hands-on work with supervisors to running an array of errands. Vazquez recalled how some of his friends thought to have signed up to learn from design teams and ended up picking up their supervisor’s children from school and cleaning the office bathroom.

“I feel like people give me real responsibilities,” Johnson said. “[The team that I work with] are all young professionals, so it’s easy to look up to them because I know they were in my position not long ago and they’ve achieved a lot.”

Emellie Rustemian, a LIM College student, is an accessories intern at Vogue and among the last class of interns at Condé Nast. She feels that her experience could be beneficial for her in the full-time position job market.

“I graduate this semester and having the intern program dissolve may mean a great chance of getting hired because they are going to be needing extra help,” Rustemian said. “It’s also somewhat amazing because I can say I was one of the last interns Vogue has ever had.”

There is a social component at play when interns are encouraged to get to know their superiors. Emily Johnson raved about The New Yorker festivals she has been able to attend. She said she assisted with the planning process for a talk last week at Carnegie Hall featuring Lena Dunham and David Sedaris.

“Even now, you have a lot of companies that utilize the internship program as a pipeline to full time opportunities,” said Lisa O’Connor, Assistant Director of Career Development at Eugene Lang.

While the future of Condé Nast’s internship program is dead for now, the company has created a legacy in publishing for its many American magazines and international adaptations.

“Condé Nast publishes some of the most culturally recognizable publications in the country,” Alex Vazquez said.  “Condé Nast is so well established that having your name attached to the company — even as an intern — is a great personal benefit.”