Backpacker Intern

This past semester has taught me a lot.

I went into my internship at Backpacker.com expecting many things and left having learned just that. From day one I was taught that this would be a learning experience in how a national, award-winning publication worked to create an healthy online presence that would keep readers coming back for more.

It is important to note that when I was hired on of the 'new media' interns, the magazine had never previously offered the internship. I learned in my interview that the magazine had recently redesigned their website, hired on new online editors and were really hoping to take the Backpacker.com name to the next level. I am very grateful to have been involved with this process. As it is with the media world, traffic and volume are important, hell, they're crucial for survival. I tried my very best to incorporate every bit of social-networking, transparency and user-involved content that I could when I worked. I was regularly updating the magazine's networking sites- each blog and poll had a Twitter, Facebook and typically, a newsletter component to it.

I had some preconceptions of what I would be doing before I started. Mainly I had envisioned office hikes, GPS tutorials, interviewing/original reporting and marathon gear-guide blog posts. Some of these happened and some didn't. Looking back on the whole experience, I learned that before any work can be done, you have to understand your audience- simple I know, but it's something that at times I've forgotten in the days of in-class how-to-source lectures and how to abbreviate state names according to AP.

So much of new media and social networking's popularity is the ability to create a simple relationship with people wherever they are. Relationships with others online are just as important in the Web 2.0 world as they were when chat-rooms and Instant Messenger were created years ago. Everyday I tried to walk into the Backpacker offices trying to understand who I was writing to, why would they care and how they could use whatever it was I was producing in order to create a relationship with our readers. At this stage I am happy with whatever type of response from my readers that I can get. From recognizing my name at the bottom of a post, to laughing out loud at their desk, or maybe even actually downloading the Oregon Trail iPhone app and hitting the trial as I suggested, all of these audience responses mattered to me. I tried to remember this each day.

In the end I wish I could have had time to write some more original material, maybe work with a handheld GPS and tackled a few more video projects. Like I mentioned above though, there is only so much time in the day right?

Thanks to my wonderful editors Anthony Cerretani, Ted Alvarez, my intern-partner-in-crime, Morgan Keys, Web Producer Katie Herrel, and everyone else at Backpacker Magazine who I had a chance to work with. Its time now to hit the trail and start the next trek.