Huffington Post Offers Paid Internship: The Intern Pays

The headline: Jumpstart Your Career in the Blogsphere With An Eye Opening Internship at The Huffington Post in New York or Washington

But for this position, no applications necessary. Just $15,500--that is, to top the last bid of $13,000. The internship is part of a charity auction for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. If you're interested, you've still got two weeks to bid. As long as you're at least 18 years old, you'll get two to three months interning in the Huffington Post offices in Washington or New York--your choice for your generous contribution.

There's plenty of Internet chatter about the significance of the auction and the sad state of journalism and falling value of journalists--that people have to pay their way to an internship. But I'm not sure that's quite the takeaway here. The fact is that media still holds a kind of cultural allure (there have been 10 bids so far, after all). Back in the 1970s' heyday of journalism, I suspect the Washington Post could have auctioned off an internship without it seeming a commentary on a journalist's worth.

Of course, in due time, this charitable model could indeed become a business model. AdAge reports that columnist Simon Dumenco already suggested the site charge its bloggers.