So you’d like to help keep the Stars flag flying? Here’s your chance to shine!
Last season was a wild ride for the Dallas Stars and their fans. And here at Defending Big D, the challenge of rebuilding an established site on a brand-new network made it even more exciting. We’re preparing for a big push during the coming season, even as the Victory Green Gang makes another big run for their next Stanley Cup.
The hockey media landscape is changing. We see this as an opportunity to expand and improve our coverage of the team, and to find better ways to present that coverage to our readers. And that’s where you come in.
DBD is looking for contributors. We want to restock at three different positions, each having their own time commitments:
Option 1: Daily Links Contributor
We are looking for dedicated Dallas Stars fans and DBD readers who would be interested in contributing to the Daily Links feature, a great opportunity for someone who is looking to write about the Stars and hockey and provide an invaluable service to the DBD community.
The job entails collecting links pertaining to the Stars and stories from around the hockey world and publishing 2-3 Daily Links post each week during the season. (We like to spread out these assignments so that no one gets stuck writing every Links post, every week.) Here are some important aspects of this position to keep in mind if you are interested:
- Daily Links posts should be published at 6 a.m. CT during the season – so these contributors will need to budget their time appropriately.
- Each post opens with a short op-ed pertaining to the top story of the day, so intermediate writing skill and hockey knowledge is helpful
- Links posts usually can be completed in 30 minutes to an hour, with careful organization.
- This is a great opportunity to get into writing about the Dallas Stars and will almost certainly lead to an expanded role with DBD in the future.
Option 2: Staff Writer (Features)
For this position, we need someone who is passionate about the Dallas Stars and wants to engage that passion with the wider Stars fan community. A degree of hockey IQ is necessary for this position – we’re looking for you to provide analysis of the game. Prior writing experience will be taken into consideration (this can be through comments, fan posts, blogging, etc.), so we want to see any Stars or hockey writing you’ve already done. This person should be able to come up with unique topics to write about without much guidance from the editorial staff, as well as follow those ideas through to publication. We’re looking for at least one story a week, and we’ll ask this writer to help as needed with game previews, recaps, breaking news and the like, as schedules allow.
Option 3: Recapper (post-game)
These contributors will provide near-instantaneous recaps of games during the regular season and the playoffs. A good knowledge of hockey statistics is beneficial to this position, and you’ll need to be able to watch the games throughout the season. We’re looking for each recapper to cover at least 20 games throughout the 82-game regular season, and you’ll have the option of choosing the games you want to cover in advance. We’re flexible about scheduling, but it’s vitally important to fulfill this basic commitment.
Things to consider when applying for these positions:
- This is a labor of love, for those who are dedicated to the sport and the Dallas Stars. No, we don’t get paid for it and no, we don’t get free tickets out of it. But you do get the satisfaction of having your writing read by some of the top people in the Stars organization, as well as the potential to be featured on sites like The Dallas Morning News with your name out there for the hockey world to see.
- Things happen, and life and our real-world jobs (the ones that keep us gainfully employed) are the priority for each of us. But this is a commitment of some of your free time, so all we ask is that you communicate with us when things need to change and to manage your time so you can contribute consistently.
If you are interested, please send an email to dbdwriters@gmail.com with a brief rundown of why you believe you’re suited for the job, and which option (or options…?) you’d like to be considered for. Even if you aren’t selected in the first round, we’ll return to this list of candidates when future openings come available.
We can’t wait to hear from you. Let’s go!