Texas Monthly Has 80 Employees, 40 Interns!

A third of the staffers running around mag’s Austin offices are young Turks.

CHICAGO—“We get ‘em from UT.”

The “‘em” that Texas Monthly senior vice president and general manager Lorelei Calvert was referring to is the 40 interns currently from the University of Texas scurrying around the company’s Austin, Texas offices. The number of regular staffers employed by Texas Monthly? Eighty.

So, let's see, that’s two employees per unpaid intern. Put another way, roughly a third of the staffers employed by Texas Monthly are young Turks. Real go-getters. No wonder why editor Evan Smith seems happy every time I see him.

Calvert, whose son is one of those 40 interns, was speaking during a CM show session here on how to keep your staffers happy while they are often stretched too thin.

Giving them each half an intern is a fine start.

COMMENTS/DISCUSS: 2

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This is legal?

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 15:13.

Sounds more like labor exploitation to me. I could build a heck of a profitable business if I only had to pay 2/3 of my employees.

I would not go so far as to

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 14:11.

I would not go so far as to use the words labor exploitation. I assume that the interns are gathering incredibly valuable work/life experience, as I am as an intern elsewhere. My question lies in the ethical use of these interns, though: when they move on (graduate), and Texas Monthly hires on the next crop, etc. as will so many businesses, what will the benefit be to them? Will Texas Monthly have 40, or four, or heaven forbid, even one position open for one of those hardworking interns to fill? I highly doubt it. So, then what? Especially in this economy, I think we need to look at where we are going with this. Perhaps a European model of paid apprenticeships needs to be examined and considered. Where are all these college educated, debt-drowning graduates supposed to work for a living?