Internships Available at Cabin Radio
Join Cabin Radio as a paid intern and develop your broadcasting, journalism, or videography skills in a fast-paced, ever-changing daily news and entertainment environment in Yellowknife, NWT.
Our summer 2023 journalism paid internship application process opened on October 15, 2022. The deadline to apply is 11pm MT on November 25, 2022.
Applicants can expect to be contacted by December 2 if they are successful in reaching the interview stage.
If students have any questions they can send me an email or reach out to Ollie Williams, who is the head of programming and news, at ollie@cabinradio.ca.
Cabin Radio’s paid journalism internships
In our newsroom, you won’t be doing coffee runs – you’ll be reporting breaking news, covering communities across the Northwest Territories.
Each summer, we offer paid internships of six to 12 weeks depending on the length required by you or your program. Our internships usually take place between May and August – if your availability falls outside those months, let us know in your application.
Launched in 2017, Cabin Radio is a start-up newsroom and radio station. We specialize in multimedia journalism: you will be writing stories, taking photos, creating live and packaged video, and producing compelling audio for both live broadcast and podcast distribution.
We are quick, accurate, creative, and fair. We look for stories of consequence to Northwest Territories residents – from important breaking news or municipal decisions through to things that are funny or just good news stories – and we report on them in ways that are interesting, and make sense, to our diverse audience. Our journalists are expected to use their initiative, find their own stories, and follow them to a conclusion.
Our journalism should be clear, simple to understand, full of context that explains the bigger picture, and of a reliably high standard. But we also have more freedom than other outlets to have fun with our headlines, be informal and engaging in our videos (we are the home of Extreme Duck Racing), and show that we’re local – and we understand what it means to be from, or living in, the NWT.
Our interns are an active part of a small, friendly, hard-working team, led by a former senior broadcast journalist for BBC News. If you are seeking an internship where you are a front-line journalist from your first day, in one of the most interesting and dynamic news environments on the continent, this is the position for you. (A piece of feedback we often hear from our interns: “I didn’t think you really meant I’d be a front-line journalist from day one, but that’s exactly what it was like.”)
You’ll be spending your summer in the beautiful, small city of Yellowknife, on the edge of Great Slave Lake. Alongside your work commitments, there will be opportunities to get out and explore the Northwest Territories for yourself. However, those opportunities are a part of work, too: like being a part of our 30-hour live broadcast from Folk on the Rocks, the North’s biggest music festival.
Our summer interns have graduated to full-time paid positions at Cabin Radio, the CBC and elsewhere. We’re confident that this is one of the most active, immersive and formative journalism internships available in Canada.
To apply, send the following to our editor, Ollie Williams, by 11pm MT on November 25, 2022:
- Your résumé
- A cover letter that explains, in no more than 200 words, what you will bring to Cabin Radio and how you will approach reporting on the unique cultural, geographical, and political environment of the Northwest Territories
- Three examples of your work (at least one written example must be submitted; video, audio, and social examples are also invited)
- Three sample one-sentence Northwest Territories story pitches
- Desired placement length and the dates you are available
We encourage applications from northern residents not currently taking part in any formal journalism program, which will be evaluated on their own merits.
Applicants must be legally eligible to work in Canada.
Our past interns
The Cabin Radio journalism internship honour roll includes the following people since the program was formally established in 2020:
2020: Meaghan Brackenbury, Sarah Sibley, Alice Twa
2021: Ben Andrews, McKenna Hadley-Burke, Catriona Koenig
2022: Laurissa Cebryk, Amelia Eqbal, Sophie Kuijper Dickson
We’ve chosen one report published by each of our interns to provide you with a sense of the work you’ll be able to accomplish while you’re with us:
Class of 2020
Meaghan Brackenbury: It took 40 years to craft the memories of NWT Elders into this book.
We Remember the Coming of the White Man is the result of four decades’ work to tell the stories of 10 Elders. The book’s origins lie in a 1976 documentary.
Sarah Sibley: Puppy love: NWT dogs set to tie the knot this summer
It’s the Yellowknife wedding of the summer, and the cake is made of fish heads. Gabby, a poodle diagnosed with cancer, is to marry Bojack, a northern special.
Alice Twa: Yellowknifer sets out to hike Canada’s longest esker
Last year, he canoed for three months through the barrenlands (with the kids). Now, he’s starting a two-month solo hike across North America’s longest esker.
Class of 2021
Ben Andrews: In the charge toward electric vehicles, where is the NWT?
The NWT has almost no electric vehicle chargers, even as major manufacturers plan huge shifts in the near future. One family is working to plug in the gaps.
McKenna Hadley-Burke: Indigenous doula training works to reconnect NWT with traditions
A training program for Indigenous doulas is being hailed as a step toward restoring Indigenous approaches to birth in the Northwest Territories.
Catriona Koenig: A brotherhood’s breakfast offering to Yellowknife men
“Every time you think of crazy Indians, you’re going to think good things. We’re going to kill the stereotype.” Meet the brotherhood helping Yellowknife’s men.
Class of 2022
Laurissa Cebryk: Does the Northwest Territories have the world’s greatest climb?
The NWT has one of the most talked-about mountain climbs in the world, and barely anyone here knows about it. Meet the Lotus Flower Tower.
Amelia Eqbal: New slo-pitch division finds teams happ-E to be there
“There were people taking D league seriously. You’re not supposed to know the rules.” Some Yellowknife slo-pitch teams are so bad, they needed a new division.
Sophie Kuijper Dickson: What’s happening at Inuvik’s shelters, and why it matters
How should Inuvik’s homeless shelters be run? The answer to that question keeps changing, but it’s an important answer to find. Here’s a guide to the issue.