Join The Cowl

Table of Contents

  1. Opportunities at The Cowl
  2. Frequently Asked Questions
  3. Online Application

Opportunities at The Cowl

News Writer

Description: The News Staff provides the Providence College community with timely information about both on campus and off campus events or issues. News writers attend these events or conduct interviews to investigate these issues and submit their articles on a weekly basis.

Duties:

  • Attending weekly News Staff meetings to discuss story assignments
  • Writing articles on a weekly basis
  • Interviewing students, faculty members, or administrators
  • Attending events, meetings, or forums

Time Commitment: News Staff meetings are held Monday evenings and typically last a half hour. News writers will also need to be available to attend events and schedule interviews. Articles can be written from home, however they should be submitted in a timely manner to comply with the section’s deadline.

Experience: No experience required. Previous work in news writing or on a newspaper is a plus.

Location: Weekly meetings are held in The Cowl office. Events are typically held at various locations across campus, and interview locations are arranged between the writer and the interviewee.

Opinion Writer

Description: Opinion Staff Writers are responsible for writing opinion pieces on relevant topics pertaining to the PC community on a weekly to bi-weekly basis.

Duties:

  • Writing articles (500-700 words) or tangents (230-250 words) on a weekly basis
  • Generating own topic ideas for articles
  • Attending weekly meetings to discuss topics and requirements

Time Commitment: Attending 30-45 minute weekly meetings. Managing time effectively to abide by deadlines.

Experience: No experience is necessary. Previous experience writing on a newspaper or other publications is a plus.

Location: No set location to complete tasks. Weekly meetings held in The Cowl office.

Arts & Entertainment Writer

Description: Arts & Entertainment writers cover fashion, film, art, and other aspects of culture.  While the primary focus tends to be on Providence College events, writers are free to cover stories in the Providence area and beyond.

Duties:

  • Attending weekly meetings to discuss content and review past issues
  • Writing articles/generating content

Time Commitment: Writers are required to attend brief, weekly meetings and contribute a 500-750 word article per week.  Overall, a writer’s responsibilities should amount to no more than a couple hours per week.

Experience: No experience is necessary although past experience in a school newspaper or involvement with a blog, art organization, etc. is preferred.  Passion about a field in Arts and Entertainment, whether it be music, film, literature, etc., is more essential than past experience.

Portfolio Writer

Description: Portfolio writers contribute short fiction, poetry, satire/humor, and creative nonfiction to The Cowl. We also write Listomania, a satirical column addressing relevant topics on campus, and publish Providence College’s premier (totally legit) advice column, Tiff & Earl.

Duties:

  • Attend a weekly meeting to assign and discuss content
  • Contribute themed content for our Halloween insert, Christmas insert, and Valentine’s Day insert

Time Commitment: Our weekly meetings are 7:00-7:30pm on Thursdays. You’ll be expected to write at least every other week.

Experience: No experience necessary. If you love creative writing, we’d love to see your work!

Sports Writer

Description: The Cowl Sports Staff delivers sporting news from Providence College and all around the U.S. The articles are combined weekly to form the final section of the school newspaper. These articles are mostly written about athletics on the Providence College campus, including Varsity Sports, Club Sports, and Intramurals.

Duties:

  • Following the seasonal athletics of Providence College.
  • Attending Weekly Meetings to learn your assignment for the week and to review the past weeks issue.
  • Occasionally interviewing people involved in athletics (Coaches, Players, Managers, AD’s and GA’s)
  • Finishing Articles by Monday Nights each week, Tuesdays can also work as due dates for longer assignments.

Time Commitment: Half an hour for a weekly meeting. Time spent on articles depends on the specific assignment, can range from half an hour to a few hours each week.

Experience: A familiarity with sports is preferred, especially at the college level. However, there is no experience required.

Location: Meetings are held in the Cowl Office in lower Slavin, articles can be written anywhere.

Photographer

Photographers produce the images that bring the paper to life while learning to use professional-grade equipment and software.

Copy Editor

Description: The copy editors read through each article of The Cowl, finding and correcting mistakes. The main objective of the staff is to ensure that every article that goes to print is factually correct and stylistically sound. Errors are the easiest way to lose credibility, so it is our job to fix every error before the paper prints.

Duties:

  • Read articles and correct spelling, grammatical, and factual mistakes
  • Check page layouts for flaws
  • Maintain a consistent writing style throughout each section of The Cowl

Time Commitment: Three hours a week on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Experience: A strong grasp of correct spelling and grammar is necessary. Experience in writing or editing is helpful but not required.

Location: The Cowl office.

Cartoonist

Coming Soon

Business Staff

Description: The Cowl Business Staff generates profits by selling advertisements and handling the newspaper accounting. Business Associates interested in sales can choose to handle on-campus or local business accounts. Those interested in accounting can assist with weekly publication fee payments, accounts receivable, reimbursements, and deposits.

Duties:

  • Ad sales to local businesses (sales pitch, communication with the client, follow-up on the payment)
  • Market research to identify potential new clients
  • Helping manage on-campus and national ad submissions
  • Handling accounts receivable and assisting with accounting tasks
  • Managing the online advertisements

Time Commitment: At least one hour a week.

Experience: Training is provided for our staff based on the responsibilities they choose to fulfill.

Location: Weekly staff meetings take place in The Cowl office. You do not need to leave campus to handle on-campus advertisement or accounting tasks. Local sales may require you to visit the clients off campus in the area around Providence College.

Graphic Designer

Description: The Cowl is looking for graphic designers to help with creating graphics and designs for all sections.

Time Commitment: at least three hours a week.

Experience: Basic knowledge of Adobe Suite.

Location: Work will be completed in the The Cowl office on our computers.

Social Media Curator

Description: Social Media Curators manage the social media accounts of The Cowl. The main objectives of this team is to update, manage, and innovate in order to improve the quality of the accounts. This helps improve the reach of the entire paper so that members of the College community can receive our engaging content even while off campus.

Duties:

  • Posting to accounts
  • Creating and managing accounts

Time Commitment: At least one hour a week plus a weekly meeting.

Experience: Experience with Social Media is preferred but not required. All training can be completed in a couple hours.

Location: Meetings are in The Cowl office. Most work can be completed on any electronic device.


Frequently Asked Questions

  • How can I apply to join The Cowl?
    Simply fill out the application at the bottom of this page and wait for an interested section to contact you. Students of all class years are welcome. No prior experience is required and continuous training is provided for all positions.
  • What can working for The Cowl do for me?
    The Cowl was established in 1935, and is currently circulated to 1,500 to 2,500 readers. The Cowl is a learning experience, and our experienced staffers will work with newer staffers to help them develop writing and editing skills as well as a greater understanding of how newspapers function.
  • How big of a commitment is working for The Cowl?
    Cowl Staffers usually contribute one article a week to The Cowl, usually averaging 500 or 600 words.
  • Other Questions
    Please email editor@thecowl.com with other questions or fill out the application below inorder to apply.

Online Application

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