The Magazine Association of BC has just been approved for subsidies for internships running between March 2025 and February 2026.
Member magazines who are interested in hosting an intern should apply soon, even if the internship doesn’t start until later in the year, as we will be approving applications on a rolling basis until the funding is spent.
Here are a few details about our subsidy:
- The maximum subsidy is $6,300 or 80%, whichever is less.
- Internships must consist of significant meaningful work, i.e. interns must have regular opportunities to apply their education and skills to gain valuable work experience, not just tedious, repetitive work that anyone with a bit of training can do.
- Interns must either be current students or have graduated less than 3 years ago from an accredited post-secondary institution.
- The internship must either be:
- A minimum of 320 hours total, typically 20+ hours/week for 16-26 weeks*
- A minimum of 320 hours total, typically 30+ hours/week for 10-26 weeks* for magazines that publish content 3+ times a week, e.g. online newsmagazines
- A minimum of 200 hours total, typically 10-19 hours/week for 18-26 weeks* for very small magazines.
- * The weeks counted cannot including gap weeks in which the intern works less than half of their usual hours, such as during the winter holidays.
- Hours should be evenly distributed across the internship period to ensure a consistent learning experience. While the above are the minimum requirements, we encourage longer internships (e.g. 400+ hours) where possible to provide interns with deeper, more valuable experience.
- Please check with the Internship Coordinator first if you would like to apply for an internship under #2 or #3 above to make sure your magazine is eligible.
- Pay at least $20/hour. The average wage over the past two years has been $21.40.
- An exception is very small magazines (category #3), which can pay the minimum wage (currently $17.40/hour, then $17.85/hour as of June 1, 2025).
- Mentors must meet with interns a minimum of a half-hour a week or an hour every other week for up to 10 hours total to help the intern in their career, such as giving feedback on their resume or portfolio, talking about the magazine industry, doing a role-play interview, etc. Job training, skills development, feedback on work done and other supervisory duties do not count as mentoring.
- The internship coordinator will book a brief weekly Zoom check-in and discussion with each intern to provide additional assistance and advice for the first 5 weeks of the internship, then as needed.
The above is just a summary of the main points, so we recommend that MagsBC members who are interested in hosting an intern read our guide first, even if they have hosted before, as the program has changed over time.
We also recommend reading AMPA‘s excellent Internship Success Guide, which they produced for their Indigenous Internship Program, but which has a lot of valuable information for any host or intern, especially for those magazines without a human resources department or experience in hiring interns.
To apply, please send an email to Shristi Uprety, Internship Coordinator, MagsBC at interncoord@magsbc.com with the following:
- A 1-2 paragraph statement of interest
- Section 1 of the internship subsidy program details form (MS Word)
- An internship job posting with all details as listed on page 9 of our guide.
All of the above must be received and complete before a submission will be considered.
Approval as always is contingent on funding.
Please direct any questions to Internship Coordinator Shristi Uprety at interncoord@magsbc.com, or Executive Director Sylvia Skene at exec@magsbc.com or 604-688-1175 in Shristi’s absence.
Funded by the Government of Canada.
