It's that time of year again: Torontoist is on the hunt for new contributors. If you have any talent that you think would fit on Torontoist—be it writing, photography, illustration, podcasting, whatever—this is your lucky day.

What We Can Offer You

Freedom. Contributors on Torontoist are given an extraordinary amount of freedom. Though we're organized (see "Order" below), you get to do pretty much anything you want to once you've made it on staff—if we like you enough to hire you, we trust your judgment! We edit the content of posts sparingly, and you won't be pigeonholed into doing any one thing for us (say, only writing about music).
Order. While we do give you freedom, that's not to say that it's a messy free-for-all; for a blog, we really have our shit together. You'll be part of an organization that values...well, organization: we make sure that everyone has a fair shot at a story, and that stuff happens when it's supposed to. If you ever need help, there are people there for that, too, from editors, to sectional editors, to your fellow staff members.
Growth and Exposure. We're (still) #1! For the past three years, Torontoist has slowly become an alternative media force to be reckoned with in our city, and this is your opportunity to be part of that. Now, with about 150,000 unique visitors each month, Torontoist is the most popular website of its kind in the country—in fact, we have more than double the traffic of any other city blog in the great white north. All sorts of awesome people—local celebrities, newspaper and magazine writers and editors, students, politicians, musicians, bloggers, photographers, designers, whatever—read us every day.
Glee! It's actually fun work, if you can believe it: accreditation to anything and everything, interviews with your idols, party and conference invites. Plus, you're working with the coolest people in the city—our staff! Oh, and, you'll have endless bragging rights to all your Torontoist-reading friends. It's almost too awesome.
Money. We can't afford to give you very much, but you will be able to buy yourself some cups of coffee with the money that you pull in. As time goes on, and as our readership increases, we'll pay everyone more. Oh, and we'll ensure that you get paid regularly, every month, without exception.

What We're Looking For In A Contributor

Talent. You should be good at what you do, and understand that we're about quality, not quantity. You have your ear to the ground in our city and know when cool and interesting stuff is happening. If you need to, you can write quickly, but you never write sloppily.
Commitment. You should be comfortable posting once or twice a week (or more), on a regular basis—into September and beyond. And when you say that you'll do something, you'll do it.
Enthusiasm. You really, really, really, really care about Toronto, and you really, really, really, really want to write for us. You loovveee us. You want to marrrrry us.
"People Skills." Whatever that means. You're in a unique position on Torontoist where you'll be interacting with people who can comment on what you do instantly, and though we'll always love you, some people might not. We'll always back you up, but it'll help if you have some thick skin.

What We Need From You When You Apply

Pitch us some post ideas. No less than 2 and no more than 5. They should be a sentence or two each (no need to kill yourself) and they can be general or super-specific. Think of it like this: if you were on Torontoist staff right away, what would you post about? What are we missing that you can provide? Would you want to write a regular column? Is there any one thing you specialize in writing about, or are you multi-talented? (If we bring you on staff, you should be ready, willing, and able to start work on what you've pitched us.)
Some samples of what you do. We want to get a feel for your style. Your blog (or online portfolio or Flickr account, etc.) works. So do clippings. Or, if you've never written something that you think would fit our tone, you're welcome to write an example post for us about anything you'd like.
Anything else that'll help us make our decision. We want to know about you! Tell us why you're so awesome.

A Little Extra

In addition to hiring regular contributors, we are looking for people to fill the following specific positions:

Copy Editor. We're looking for someone to look over every word of all of our posts and make sure that they're neat and tidy and done according to our in-house style guide. The ideal person for the position should be someone who happily checks Torontoist many times every single day; is completely and utterly trustworthy and reliable; and knows the rules of grammar and style (specifically, Chicago Manual of Style's rules) inside out, as well as some basic HTML to troubleshoot any other weirdness that comes up in our posts. We're not gonna ask you to edit the meat of an article or to change what our writers say and how they say it, merely to correct any typos or other mistakes. To apply, pick any post from June 2007 and copy edit it. Mercilessly. With your application, send us a link to the post you've edited, and your suggested changes for the entirety of that post. Also, include the contact information for a reference or two, as well.
Photographers. Occasionally, we'll need photographers to cover events. You should be dependable, great at what you do, and very, very fast. In addition to being sent out on assignment, though, we'd love it if you had ideas for photo projects that could run regularly on Torontoist (something like 69 Stations last summer). When you apply, send us a link to some of your photos, and tell us what you'd like to do for us.
Photo Editor. Duties will include organizing our Daily Photoist and weekly photo roundup, keeping an eye on our Flickr pool for new great photos to create features like In The Pool, and, potentially, organizing our staff photographers. For this position, you should be a great writer and photographer (and great at writing about photography), and willing to go shoot a story for us if we need it.
Sports Writers. You are good at making sports interesting to people who might not otherwise care about them. You're well-rounded, and can talk about the Leafs, Raptors, Blue Jays, or any other Toronto sports team (there are a few others, right??) in equal measure. You'd be comfortable posting three times a week (give or take) to give Torontoist some much-needed sports coverage. (Depending on interest in this position, we may split it into several different writer positions and ditch the "Editor" title.)

How To Apply

To apply, please send an e-mail to me (David Topping!), at hiring@torontoist.com. The deadline for this round of hiring is midnight on Tuesday, July 3.

Successful applicants will be contacted throughout the month of June and into July. Though we welcome all applicants, we may only contact those who are considered for a position. Oh, and please don't be offended if we don't pick you; we regularly receive hundreds of applications for these contributor hires, and we still love you all.

Oh, also, Torontoist accepts bribes. Papa needs a brand new Mac.