Much like the Dallas Stars, the Defending Big D writing staff has undergone some big changes this summer.
Brad, the lovable curmudgeon who had been with the site basically since its inception, joined those in the green pastures of blogger retirement. Which pretty much means now all he does is snark and post pictures of food, and then conveniently lose our invitation to brisket night in the dark holes of the interweb.
Erin will continue on at Defending Big D, but she’s began her journey of being a healer by joining the hell that is medical school. When she’s not grossing us out with stories of weird diseases, she’ll be bringing her notorious rule-loving self whenever the referees their judgement calls make her irate.
Others on staff have gotten new jobs, or started new careers, or had babies, or general life happenings that have caused each of us to lose some of our free time to devote here to DBD for the coming season.
Why do you care about these changes? Because that means we’re looking for a few new people to join our staff and be part of what is sure to be an exciting season for Stars fans.
So what are we looking for this season? There are so many ways to get involved or join us in covering this team!
Option 1: Daily Links Contributor
For those of you who have been reading DBD for a good while now, you know that during the season (and periodically during the offseason) we have a very popular daily feature that is basically a run down of all the links pertaining to the Dallas Stars, their affiliates, and general NHL news. These posts run daily during the season, are a great way to expose our readers to all the resources available on the web and are generally one of the most visited posts of the day.
We are looking for a dedicated Dallas Stars fan and DBD reader 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 in general, and provide an invaluable service to the DBD community.
The job will entail collecting links pertaining to the Stars and stories from around the hockey world and publishing a Daily Links post 2-3 times a week during the season, with some flexibility certainly allowed and expected. Here are some very important aspects of this position to keep in mind if you are interested:
- Daily Links posts are generally published at 6 a.m. CT each day — so any interested persons would likely need to be a night owl, or early riser (or better yet, on the West Coast).
- Each post would also include a short op-ed pertaining to the top story of the day, so some advanced writing skill and hockey knowledge is a plus.
- Links posts generally do not take more than 30 minutes to an hour to complete, if done smartly. Retweet, bookmark, or email the link to yourself whenever you see something interesting throughout the day and it should nearly collate itself! And we also help each other out with suggestions, too. You know what they say…team work makes the dream work.
- 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. (Brad and Erin both started off as Links correspondents and ended as editors.)/
For those interested in applying for a daily links position, please provide an example of a links post that includes an analysis piece at the beginning and a roundup of 10-15 links of relevant, current news about the Dallas Stars, Texas Stars, or other NHL teams/general sport information. Extra points will go to those that change up their presentation and don’t just copy what we do today.
Option 2: Staff Writer (Features)
The staff writer is 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 us with analysis of the game. Prior writing experience will be taken into consideration (this can be through comments, fan posts, blogging, etc.) This person will need to be able to provide unique topics to write about without much guidance from the editorial staff and follow those ideas through to publication. We’d be looking for 2-3 stories a week with additional help as needed for game recaps, breaking news, and the like as schedules allow.
For those interested in applying for a staff writer position, please provide a writing sample on a topic that is relevant to the Dallas Stars today. Extra points will go to those that do not regurgitate content we’ve already written up this offseason. The hardest part to being a feature writer is having to come up with unique content twice a week without someone giving you direction, so this should be a good litmus test as to whether this is a good fit for you.
Option 3: Game Day Correspondent
This position entails a few areas. Firstly, this person may take on some of the game preview work Brad did this season. This is breaking down the opponent for the Stars and what interesting storylines there are between the two teams, as well as providing readers with injury updates and potential lineups of the opponent as well as the Stars.
Another part to the game day correspondent position would be breaking news in season such as injury news, call-ups, etc. Having a flexible schedule or a job that allows you to write up a quick news piece and impact on the roster/player would be an advantage, but not required.
Lastly, game day correspondents will provide a recap of a number of road games in season. You’ll need to watch games and write about them quickly, so hockey knowledge will be a key aspect to this position.
For those interested in applying for a game day correspondent, please provide a writing sample of either a preview for the Stars’ first game versus the Vegas Golden Knights, a recap of that same game (use your imagination of what occurred and tell us about it!), or a breaking news story on an injury to a key player (pick one yourself, I’m not putting that juju out in the world!) and resulting impact to the roster.
If you provide a writing sample for the breaking news aspect, please provide an additional writing sample of one of the other two aspects (preview or recap) so that we can get a good understanding of your writing style and hockey knowledge.
A few things to consider when applying for these positions…
- This is a labor of love, for those that are 100% dedicated to the sport and the Dallas Stars. No, you don’t get paid for it and no, you don’t get free tickets out of it. 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 Puck Daddy and 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’re able to communicate effectively when things need to change and be able to manage your time to contribute consistently./
If you are interested, please send an email to dbdwriters@gmail.com with a brief rundown of why you feel you are best suited for the job, and which option(s) you’d like to be considered for. Even if you aren’t ultimately selected, we like to reach out to those that have expressed interest previously if openings occur in-season.