From BHS to the ONION

Tuesday Mar. 1st, 2011

Sitting at a desk at the nation’s premier satirical newspaper three years out of Bozeman high school would be surprising for most people. But for Samantha Booth, BHS graduate, class of 2008, it’s her daily reality for the next three months. Working at The Onion, a parody newspaper and online website based out of Chicago, is an experience that few journalism students have.

The road to working at the Onion began when Booth was first introduced to journalism writing for Hawk Tawk; she wrote for three years and held the position of Editor-in-Chief her senior year. “I don’t think I would have chosen journalism as a major if it weren’t for Hawk Tawk,” said Booth, “and BHS did a really good job of preparing me academically for college.”

The opportunity to work for the Onion came through the journalism program at Northwestern University. All journalism majors are required to have a junior year residency program, interning at media outlets across the country, and Northwestern chooses where you will be working based on your interests and experiences. Booth worked at the Chronicle as an intern this past summer but beyond that hadn’t had any other intern opportunities, so she was thrilled to find that she was headed to the Onion. “Like every other 20-something, I love The Onion, so I was beyond ecstatic when I found out that that was where I was going,” said Booth.

After she found out where she was headed for her internship nervousness over working at such a big name publication set in. “I was really nervous that they would just be like, out-of-my-league hilarious all the time and that I wouldn’t be able to keep up,” Booth said, “but the office is actually really quiet.” The Onion is on the forefront of utilizing new media technologies, and everyone uses AOL instant messenger to communicate so it gives the feeling of working in a library, said Booth. The Onion’s office turned out to be much different than Booth was expecting, with a very modern technologically oriented feel. “I think that the atmosphere in The Onion’s office is a reflection of the loss of the traditional, old fashioned ‘newsroom’ feel more than anything else,” said Booth. But according to Booth there is a fun feeling to the office; a fridge covered in word magnets hosts some hilarious sentences staffers have come up with and every Friday evening the staff gets in a circle and takes a shot of whiskey together.

So far Booth has mainly been copy editing and fact checking articles and writes 2-4 short stories daily for the A.V. Club, which is the Onion’s non-satirical arts and entertainment section. She recently made her first successful pitch to the editors to write a full length article on a growingly popular YouTube video of a one man Lord of the Rings. “They are very picky about what story ideas they will accept, so I was literally over-the-moon when they said they liked my pitch,” said Booth.

Working at the Onion has given Booth one of her first forays into the working world as she works Monday through Friday in downtown Chicago a few blocks from the Sears tower. “I’ve had jobs before, but this one seems more like a real, grown-up job,” said Booth, “But working here has been great.”

As for a future career in journalism, Booth isn’t set on pursuing that path and is interested in diplomatic work or ideally becoming a novelist. She is triple majoring at Northwestern in Journalism, U.S. History, and International Studies with a minor in Marketing. “I thought that I would make a good journalist because I am a good writer, but I realized after getting to Northwestern that reporting and interviewing are not on my list of favorite things to do,” said Booth. “Journalism is a very versatile degree to have and can get your foot in the door for a lot of different professions.”

Whatever career Booth ends up pursuing, her experience at the Onion and in journalism at Northwestern should set her up for future success.

Will Meyer is a Hawk Tawk contributor.