English-y Internships: Mpls.St.Paul Magazine

By Daniel Graham ’26

While I do not love our college’s job search website of choice, I must admit that this summer, Handshake helped me find a job. After a spring filled with applications and rejections, I reached my limit. I filled out an application for the Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and gave up. I had another job I could work that summer anyways, so the magazine would be my last shot.

It took them a second to get back to me (they have a packed schedule) but I got an interview, I took their “intern test” where I proved I could write on deadline, and they gave me the job. 

Now, as an editorial intern, I work 20 hours a week fact-checking print articles and writing my own short pieces for the MSP Magazine website, in addition to anything else my editors may need. I started in June and will finish in January. For the fall semester, I’ve also registered this job for credit, so it counts as one of my classes, in addition to my pay (Minnesota minimum wage is luxury, trust me).

First, the fun part: I get to write about stuff that I’m interested in. Each week, I pitch stories that I could write. The main parameters are that they are newsworthy, Minnesota-related, and in line with the magazine’s typical material. 

I’ve had my share of bad pitches, especially when I started out, but when the Minnesota State Fair came around, I felt like I hit my stride. I ended up writing five articles on the fair in a couple weeks, but my proudest piece was about the brand-new soft serve beer. I found and pitched that story myself. Once approved, I took a one-and-a-half hour bus ride to the manufacturer to taste it. The video I took for the story accrued 2.7 million views on Instagram.

Of course, most of my stories aren’t like that. Often, I write blogs that the magazine needs for its website. For my own pitches, I often have a longer time to write and gather interviews and information—usually a week or two—but for the stories I’m given, which are often shorter, I sometimes have a day or even an hour to get 200-400 words out. 

The fact-checking process is often less exciting. My editors usually hand me an article that demands a turnaround of anywhere from a day to a week. Sometimes, these are just as simple as several Google searches to verify a store’s proper name, location, and phone number. Other times, they’re more involved. I’ve dug through scientific articles, emailed and called sources, and spent hours and days digging through the internet to find where in the world an author got this one tiny item.

I’ve often found fact-checking dull and frustrating, but recently, I got an article that dealt with the treatment of Native Americans in Minnesota. I didn’t know a lot about this history, but I did a deep dive into it and was able to help re-shape the article with more accurate details. I was worried about how my feedback might be received, but my editor expressed a lot of gratitude for my work. For a job that often feels like a human spell check, I was glad to make an impact.

I’m not particularly special for getting this job as a Macalester student. Right now, I work with a 2025 Mac grad, and I know of at least one other Mac student who worked at this magazine a couple years ago. You need some newswriting chops (join The Mac Weekly for that!) and be prepared for tight deadlines and the occasional harsh critique, but it is achievable, fun and above all, it is a job in an English-related field.

I’m not sure yet what I’d like my life after college to look like, but this magazine is a step towards a career, and one available to anyone reading this piece.