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I am interested in adding a couple new writers to the Let's Go Tribe team. Ryan, along with help from Jay, Adam, and Andrew, among others, built this place into the very best Cleveland Indians blog there is, and the one with the highest profile. The staff at Cleveland Scene chose us as Cleveland's best sports blog this year, and this is an opportunity for you to be a bigger part of it.
Writing here is a guaranteed way to have thousands of people see your work. That's a big deal if you're trying to build an audience for your work, and/or a resume as a writer. It's also a cool feeling, even if it's just a hobby for you. I'm interested in either sort of person, someone who's working towards a career as a writer, or someone who just wants an outlet to write about something they love.
The three most important qualifications:
- Passion for the Indians
- The ability to write reasonably well
- Dependability
There are a couple different "positions" I'm looking to fill:
- Someone to write one or two morning news and notes posts each week. These can be written late at night, or early in the morning. Either way they generally go up some time between 8:00 and 9:00 AM Eastern. You pull interested articles and news items on the Indians, and from around MLB. If you're not already familiar with what I'm talking about, you can find an example from every single day. A writer responsible for this should be someone who already spends time reading baseball writing from around the internet.
- Someone to write one or two game threads and recaps each week. Game threads need to be written some time between 30 minutes and 3 hours before a game. You're basically following a template, and once you have that template down, the game thread shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes to put together. Recaps should go up within an hour of the game ending. A writer responsible for this should be someone who will be watching the game, and can work relatively quickly, because the recap should be up within 45 minutes of the game ending, when possible.
It is certainly possible for one person to do both of those things, as Ryan, Phil, and I all do. It's also possible to just do one or the other, as woodsmeister, westbrook, and USSChoo all do. I understand that for many people, the most appealing possibility is writing features/opinion pieces. That's the kind of work most likely to attract outside attention and help build a portfolio. Anyone writing news & notes posts and/or recaps may also contribute features for the front page, but understand that the news & notes and/or recaps are what I'm specifically looking for.
Last fall when I looked to bring a couple new writers on board, I got a lot of responses, and it wasn't easy to know how best to sort through them. There were a couple people who expressed interest, and I thought might be a good fit, but I didn't want to bring too many new people on board all at once.
Things that might separate you from other interested parties:
Regular access to the internet and a schedule flexible enough to allow them to jump on and put together a brief post if something significant happens is big. I'll always cover breaking news when I can, but I have an actual job, and that job means I'm not always in a position to know that something's happened, much less write anything about it. Many of the other writers here do what they can too, but the more writers willing and able to help, the better.
The last person added to our team was Cody (USSChoo). He was an easy call, because I'd already spent months and months reading what he had to say about the team, and interacting with him. I obviously want to feel like anyone I bring on board is going to be a good contributor, and if I already have a sense of that from a body of comments and/or FanPosts, that's an advantage. That said, while I'd been reading the posts at LGT for quite some time, I'd made only a handful of comments here before Ryan plucked me from obscurity to join the team, so I'm certainly open to bringing on a relative newcomer. If that's going to happen though, you're going to have to have some sort of writing you can share with me.
If you're interested:
Know going into this that I'm not "hiring" anyone, because these are not paid positions. If you come on board, do well, and take on enough responsibility, there's a possibility that you'll make some money from it down the road, but it wouldn't be life-changing. It'd be enough to pay for MLB.TV, or cover a few trips to your local ballpark, or pick up a nice 6-pack every once in a while. It's really cool to know your passion for the Indians is covering those things, but if your interest in LGT is financial, you're going to be disappointed, and ultimately, it's not going to feel worth it. Like I said already, it's got to be about your passion for the team, and your interest in being a significant part of the community here.
If you'd like to be considered, please email me. (my address can be found on the masthead) Let me know if you're interested in news & notes, or recaps, or both. If you're a commenter here, let me know your username. If you've got writing you think I should see, pass it along (it doesn't have to be Indians-related writing, though if you've got that, it certainly makes sense to share it).
Thanks.