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Marie Claire has responded to the social media outrage that dominated your Twitter feed today regarding the internship salary of R30 a day offered by the local SA glossy. The statement reads as follows:
"We’ve been following your voices on social media and would like to address the debate about our internship programme.
Our internship programme provides valuable training in magazine and digital publishing. We empower participants through mentoring from industry heavyweights, helping them to build a portfolio of work and content, and facilitating crucial relationships within the industry.
While the benefits of interning are many, we are in the process of reviewing our internship programme. We will discuss this with key stakeholders in the business and make changes. We will be transparent about the outcome once a decision has been made.
Thank you for bringing this important discussion to us.
Julia Raphaely
CEO: Associated Media Publishing"
Is this good enough? The internship offers "valuable training in magazine and digital publishing", but only for the privileged who can actually afford to be paid R30 per day for 6 months because they have extra financial support. Those without support simply won't be able to seize such an opportunity.
This kind of statement is often used as a strategy to silence the fury and to douse the flames of anger, especially on social media. Yet, too often we forget to hold those accountable, to follow up and to make sure they make good on their word to change and to review.
What do you think of their response? Is it good enough? Let us know.
