Host Newspapers for
ONF Internships in 2025

These newspapers will host interns in summer 2025. Some internship salaries are funded by the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation, and others are funded by the newspaper or another local foundation.

Below is the contact information for each newspaper as well as a description of the paper, its staff and the internship position available.

If you have any questions, please e-mail amarshall@okpress.com or call Alexis Marshall at (405) 499-0035 or 1-888-815-2672 (toll-free in OK).

Newspapers in this list are organized by location within the state. Click on a newspaper name to be taken to its description below. The descriptions are in alphabetical order.

NEWSROOM INTERNSHIPS:

NEWSROOM INTERNSHIPS

THE LAWTON CONSTITUTION

The Lawton Constitution will receive ONF internship funding in 2025.

Editor: Scott Rains, scott.rains@swoknews.com, (580) 951-7700
Publisher: David Stringer,  david.stringer@swoknews.com

The Lawton Constitution has an over 100-year history as Southwest Oklahoma’s premiere newspaper. 

Our news staff includes two layout personnel (one of whom splits her time as a reporter/photographer), three news side reporters (including the managing editor who is also chief photographer) and our sports editor/reporter/columnist. We are presently looking for a full-time sportswriter who could move into that position in the future. We may have a small staff, but we are mighty and experienced. We have an award-winning history, including winning the Sequoyah Award from the Oklahoma Press Association in 2020 and 2022 for the large daily class. 

With Fort Sill, home of the Army’s basic training and artillery training as well as the emergence as the hub for its drone training, there are ample unique stories available for coverage you won’t find elsewhere. Also, nestled near the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, there are opportunities for interesting and historic stories as well as one-of-a-kind photography of wildlife.

Our coverage includes being the home area to the Kiowa, Comanche and Fort Sill Apache tribes, there are unique cultural and historical stories that are available for coverage. There is also a strong artistic presence in Lawton and this part of Southwest Oklahoma that can lead to unique stories you won’t find elsewhere. 

With our experience and knowledge, plus our role in the Southern Newspapers Inc. family, there is a font of knowledge available to a burgeoning reporter to learn well and gain experience that will be carried forward. It could lead to post-graduation opportunities with our company or get the intern prepared for anywhere they choose to go in the future. 

We are always looking for talent and hope to gain and learn from this generation through what they can bring to the table, be it through videography or new ideas about moving a newspaper into the future.

THE LINCOLN COUNTY NEWS (Chandler)

The Lincoln County News has hired a 2025 ONF Student Intern.

We have a staff of three full-time employees and one part-timer and use a variety of stringers as needed. We cover Lincoln County and the northern third of Pottawatomie County.

Our paper is small, but good. Our staff has won six Sequoyah awards in the last eight years and we have a wall of plaques and certificates from the annual OPA Better Newspaper Contest and monthly column, editorial and photo contests.

Summer interns at our paper have set the standard for the state. Four different interns have won the OPA monthly contest – three for columns and one for photography - and one of them won the annual sweepstakes award for writing the best column in the state for 2019. We give interns constant feedback and guidance and make developing their skills a priority. You can expect us to invest in making you and your internship successful, but we expect you to match our commitment.

If you come to the Lincoln County News for an internship, we’ll treat you as a full-time staff member and will assign you news stories, features, photos and columns. You’ll sit down with the editor and go over every word of everything you write and every photo you take. In fact, you’ll sit across the desk and read your articles aloud. It will be awkward at first, but previous interns say they learn more in those one-to-one editing sessions than in anything else. 

We invite you to apply to spend your summer with us.

STILLWATER NEWS PRESS

Stillwater News Press will receive ONF internship funding in 2025.

The Stillwater News Press last year was a finalist among CNHI newspapers across the country in areas of public service reporting, newspaper of the year and magazine of the year. The News Press produces Stillwater Oklahoma Magazine, which has won the Oklahoma Press Association magazine contest the last two years.

There are four journalists on staff in Stillwater who have decades of combined experience.

Interns have the same duties as new reporters, which would include spot coverage, feature writing, photography, etc. They will be able to pitch assignments and cover a variety of beats. They will have daily deadlines and opportunities for longterm enterprise projects and can learn from experienced journalists interviewing techniques, story structure and records requests.

We have award-winning members of staff who can train in photography and design.

WEATHERFORD DAILY NEWS

Weatherford Daily News will receive ONF internship funding in 2025.

We consider our internships one of the most valuable services of our newspaper and have a long history of employing interns at our newspapers.

The Weatherford Daily News is a daily newspaper (Tuesday through Saturday mornings) in Weatherford, Oklahoma with 36 full and part-time employees. This newspaper was established in 1900 and has been extremely involved in building the community.  The Weatherford Daily News is a family run newspaper owned by Phillip and Jeanne Ann Reid of Weatherford. The Reids also own 12 other small town newspapers in Oklahoma. The newspaper, its owners and employees have been honored many times by the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce and the Oklahoma Press Association for community leadership and excellence in news, photography, advertising and design.

This newspaper employs interns every year in many phases of production of the newspaper. The expertise of the interns has been invaluable as a resource for maintaining cutting edge technology to attract new readership. The newspaper is fully integrated on all aspects of social networking, online presence and a vibrant print readership. Interns are given full flexibility of immersion into all aspects of newspaper publishing from news, advertising, photography, marketing, design and production.

It has been the goal of the newspaper to foster emerging journalist with an appreciation of the value and opportunities in community journalism.

ENID NEWS & EAGLE

Publisher: Mike Kellogg, mkellogg@enidnews.com, (580) 233-6600
Supervisor: Kevin Hassler, Associate Editor, khassler@enidnews.com

The Enid News & Eagle publishes five days a week and is the largest news source in Northwest Oklahoma, covering an area of 8 counties, with an emphasis on Garfield County.

Enid is a newsy community of 50,000 people. It is the trade and medical hub for Northwest Oklahoma. Enid also is home to Vance Air Force Base and has a thriving arts district downtown.

The News & Eagle is an award-winning newspaper, competing each year in Oklahoma Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, winning the Sequoyah Award as the best newspaper in its division multiple times.

The News & Eagle has a newsroom staff of seven full-time employees. Our summer intern would have a great opportunity to learn different aspects of our newsroom operation.

The intern’s primary role would be to write stories, both feature and hard news, but also would have an opportunity to work on the digital side with the website, take photos and make videos to go along with story coverage for the website and social media. While most of the story assignments would come from the editors, we also encourage our interns to think for themselves and come up with their own story ideas. 

Each Weekender paper (combined Saturday and Sunday print papers), we have what we call our News Front. It’s a more in-depth story that we like our reporters to take a little more time to develop. Giving our intern a chance of develop and write his or her own News Front definitely would be something that could help improve their organizational and writing skills.

Through a partnership with Enid Regional Development Alliance and Northern Oklahoma College, we also provide accommodations in the dorms at NOC, so having a place to stay during the internship is not an issue. Reports from previous interns have shown the rooms are pretty nice.

GUTHRIE NEWS LEADER

Publisher: Rochelle Stidham, publisher@guthrienewsleader.net, (405) 282-2222

The Guthrie News Leader is a weekly newspaper over 130 years old that is situated about 20 miles north of Edmond, Ok. off IH 35. We are looking for an intern that would like to get a good start and learn by covering a small town of 12,000, that has a lot to report about. This intern will get the full opportunity to cover news and some sports. Guthrie is a great learning site for someone that wants to achieve or excel in news writing. Our staff of three would be there to help support and train.

OKC FRIDAY

General Manager: Rose Lane, rose@okcfriday.com, (405) 755-3311

OKC FRIDAY is an award-winning weekly community newspaper with a circulation of 5,000 and a staff of five full-time employees, one staff writer and four photographers. “Fridayland,” a term coined by our late founder J. Leland Gourley, encompasses far northwest Oklahoma City, including the affluent neighborhoods of Nichols Hills, Gaillardia, Quail Creek and the Greens.

The newspaper was founded by Gourley in 1974 and continues to achieve the standards established at that time of being a true local, community newspaper. In addition to news from the cities of Nichols Hills and The Village, we cover the sports and school news of 10 local high schools. Fridayland includes three public school districts, as well as five private schools. In OKC FRIDAY, you’ll also find coverage of all the local charitable galas and other parties.

An OKC FRIDAY editorial intern will be responsible for conducting interviews, doing research and writing stories. As the internship is during the time we produce our biggest issue of the year, Celebrate Oklahoma, the intern is assigned to help with stories about up and coming Oklahomans. We also seek input from interns concerning our social media, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

We will work with the intern on page design and photography. We would like to have an intern write a blog on our website – something along the lines of “A Day in the Life.”

OKC FRIDAY will provide an intern with valuable, practical and professional experience at a local, community newspaper. As our staff is small, we all must pitch in and do whatever is needed to get the paper to the press so our interns are exposed to a variety of tasks. The intern will learn to use our page-building program, Quark Express and to use AP Style. He or she will also learn basic photography skills.

OKLAHOMA WATCH

Executive Director: Ted Streuli, tstreuli@oklahomawatch.org, (405) 594-2429
Supervisor: Jennifer Palmer, reporter, jpalmer@oklahomawatch.org

Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit news organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism as a public service for the benefit of all Oklahomans. We have a staff of 6, including 4 reporters. We write stories with impact to effect real change. Newspapers across the state republish our work, and radio and TV stations interview our journalists about their stories. Our scoops sometimes make national headlines, too.

Interns are full-time staff reporters with additional supervision and mentoring. They are responsible for reporting, fact-checking, writing news articles, attending staff meetings, vetting story ideas, shooting photos and interviewing sources. Oklahoma Watch interns are paired with an experienced investigative reporter who will mentor them throughout the internship. Interns gain high level investigative reporting experience and will publish multiple stories during their tenure.

We do not produce daily spot news stories; if your journalistic aspirations are to cover a lot of meetings and collect quotes by email, this is not the right newsroom for you. If your interest is in digging your way to big stories that make Oklahoma a better place, if you’re unafraid of asking questions that make people uncomfortable, if you’re willing to make a nuisance of yourself to get your hands on the right source, right document or right data, you might love it here. Our work is published on our site and made available to all other media outlets for republication and broadcast, so we provide one of the largest platforms in the state. Interns will also participate in our weekly podcasts and our weekly radio segment and/or television appearances as appropriate.