Summer 2025 Bartley Fellowship - Opinion Internship

Summer 2025 Bartley Fellowship - Opinion Internship

Job Description:

The Wall Street Journal's Opinion section is seeking beginning journalists - juniors, seniors or recent graduates (within one year of graduation) with reporting and writing backgrounds at their school newspapers or elsewhere - for 10-week paid summer internships in our New York City office. The in-person internships are an opportunity to get hands-on experience working alongside some of the best opinion writers and editors in the world. 

Our internships - formally, the Bartley Fellowships - are in honor and memory of our section's former Editor, Robert L. (Bob) Bartley. Opportunities will be awarded to young thinkers and writers who intend to pursue a career in journalism, whose views are broadly consistent with Bob's, and the Opinion section’s, philosophy. It is essential that applicants be familiar with, and interested in, the ideas for which the Journal editorial page stands.

Several fellows will be selected each year through an application process that will be judged by senior editors. Bartley Fellows will be assigned to a department within the Opinion section - Features (Op-Eds and Columns); Arts in Review; or Book Reviews. They will assist in researching, writing and editing content for the print and digital editions of the Journal, and will contribute as needed to social media and digital production tasks. While they're assigned to a department for the summer, all interns are encouraged to submit their ideas for articles or projects to editors in any part of the Opinion section.

Internships are paid, and generally take place over June, July and August, though start dates can be flexible in certain circumstances.

If you are interested in applying for the Opinion, Books, and Arts Bartley Fellowships, please submit separate applications for each position.

Guidelines and Application Deadline:

Applicants should have direct experience writing, and ideally editing, in a journalism context. A demonstrated ability to multitask and meet daily deadlines is critical for success. Applicants should be familiar with technology as it relates to journalism. Social media experience with a publication or brand would be a plus. Applicants who are able to demonstrate familiarity with our section’s content will be especially attractive (student applicants without campus-wide access to the WSJ can purchase discounted subscriptions at wsj.com/studentoffer).

Students from any discipline may apply, but historically, we’ve been most interested in students concentrating in Journalism, Communications, Economics, Political Science, International Studies, History, a Foreign Language, Statistics, Finance, Pre-Law, Science, Business, Marketing, Religious Studies or Philosophy. Students from outside these disciplines are welcome to apply and should include a three-sentence case in their cover letter for why their field of study would be an asset for the section.

If you’d like to be considered, please submit the following in one single, complete PDF file:

•           A cover letter

•           Your résumé

•           Links to or cited full text of your three best clips

•           Your response to one of the following prompts in no more than 600 words

Write an editorial either consistent with the WSJ’s philosophy in response to a current event in the news, or defending your most controversial opinion. Write a sample letter to the editor responding to a recent WSJ editorial, Op-Ed or column. Compare and contrast two opposing arguments from any reliable, professional source(s) on the same topic. Submit an original investigative Op-Ed or original Opinion piece that is suitable in terms of style, tone of voice and topic for publication in the Journal.

All materials must be received by December 2, 2024. Only complete applications that include a cover letter, résumé and prompt responses will be considered. Please do not include any additional materials, such as transcripts, recommendation letters, etc. In order to be considered, you must be a U.S. citizen, or a holder of a green card or visa that will allow you to work in the United States. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we endeavor to make selections by the end of January. Only finalists will be contacted.

About Bob Bartley

Throughout his 30 years as The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Page Editor, Bob Bartley inspired principled and original thinking that changed and shaped the society in which we all live. He also devoted attention to teaching and motivating talented young people, many of whom have gone on to careers in journalism at the Journal and elsewhere. The Bartley fellowships are consistent with that legacy.

Bob Bartley achieved many honors during his long tenure here, including a Pulitzer Prize and, shortly before his death in December 2003, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In awarding that medal, President Bush cited Bob as “one of the most influential journalists in American history.” The Robert L. Bartley fellowships will help to perpetuate not just Bob’s memory but, above all, the principles and priorities to which he devoted his distinguished career.

About the Opinion Section

Following the American newspaper practice, the heads of News and Editorial report independently to the publisher of the Journal and CEO of Dow Jones, Almar Latour. The Editorial staff is responsible for the Opinion content published on WSJ.com, the editorial and op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal in print, and criticism of books and the arts, which are recognized at the Journal as an Opinion function.

While The Wall Street Journal’s news pages are committed to informing our readers, our editorials are dedicated to advocating a consistent philosophy and positions that emanate from it. That philosophy can be summed up as “free markets, free people.” We have stood for these fundamental principles even in times -- and places -- when they were not considered fashionable. While specific issues differ in various parts of the world, we view those issues through a consistent lens everywhere; for example, while protectionism is more popular in some parts of the world than others, our publications around the world are committed uncompromisingly to free trade.

We believe in the individual, in his wisdom and his decency. We oppose all infringements on individual rights, whether they stem from attempts at private monopoly, labor union monopoly or from an overgrowing government. Our section is not easily pigeonholed or predictable. We resist the label “conservative,” in the sense of preserving the status quo, because we think it too confining, too devoid of the optimism inherent in trusting individual wisdom and decency.

It is also important to state clearly what our section does not represent. It is not partisan. Unlike many American publishers, we do not endorse political candidates, and from time to time we have important disagreements with all leading political figures. We view issues through the lens of our philosophy and let our readers decide which person or party best serves to protect market capitalism and self-government.

We believe that the ultimate function of opinion journalism is the same as the rest of the newspaper, to inform. But in opinion journalism we have the additional purpose of making an argument for a point of view. We often take sides on the major issues of politics and society, with a goal of moving policies or events in what we think is the best direction for the country and world. Our experience over many years is that even those of you who disagree with us on particular issues -- or even on broader philosophical grounds -- nevertheless respect us for the clarity, consistency and eloquence with which we present our point of view. In stating our own views forcefully, we hope to raise and sharpen the level of debate and knowledge. And we hope that our editorials reflect not merely the passing whim of passing editors, but a body of thought shaped by a century of tradition.