Image from The Spectator – next time will it be an animated GIF?

The Spectator is advertising for interns, and the message is loud and clear on digital skills:

“Just do some of the following:-

1. Produce a two minute video with either our audio or your own explaining a topic you’ve read about on the Spectator’s website.

2. Prepare a sample 200-300 word blog offering something new on a topic of your choice for publishing on the Spectator’s Coffee House blog.

3. Choose a magazine article, and work out the best way to promote it on the website, Twitter, Facebook and beyond.

4. Suggest three ideas for potential stories.

5. Suggest two ways in which we could improve how the Spectator’s articles are promoted digitally.”

There is one option (number 4) for those who think they can avoid digital skills – but that is the exception to the rule. It’s also the exception to the preceding instruction that “All that matters in journalism is whether you can do it.”

What the list makes clear is: even to get a foot in the door, you must be able to do it digitally.