As you folks should know by now, I am a big fan of hockey personality Jonny Lazarus.
Jonny reminds me of myself when I was first starting as an online hockey writer. I was a hustler as I was cranking out a lot of articles, writing for many different hockey-related outlets, and even covering some games from the press box at Madison Square Garden.
He is at it once again as he recently announced on X/Twitter that he is starting a hockey-related newsletter called “5 for Writing”. The newsletter is set to launch next Monday, February 5th, after the NHL All-Star break.
Jonny was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to tell us about that and more in the email interview below.
PH: You recently announced that you were starting a hockey-related newsletter called “Five for Writing.” What made you decide to start a newsletter?
JL: My good friend Cael Schwartz has been pushing me to do this for a while now. He started one about 15 weeks ago about everything going on in his life and he is such a creative and talented guy who I always love to bounce ideas off of.
Watching him go through this process of creating his newsletter and seeing how much fun he is having with it certainly turned me on to the idea of doing my own. Cael’s newsletter is called “Trust Fun Baby” and I think it is such a clever concept as he is a young and fun entrepreneur who talks about his struggles with that.
He uses the platform as a diary and I thought it would be cool to do that myself and share my intimate thoughts with the hockey world.
PH: There are a growing number of hockey newsletters out there. How will yours be different from others?
JL: I am honestly not too familiar with many newsletters aside from Cael’s, so I cannot exactly say how mine will be different. Like everything I do, I will try to keep it honest.
I am going to talk about some of my insecurities that I battle with when I am at an NHL game or talking with a coach and player. I will also talk about the things that interest me and other things I hope to accomplish on a weekly basis.
PH: What is your overall goal with your newsletter? How will you go about accomplishing it?
JL: I think my overall goal with this is to just connect with hockey fans on a deeper level. I feel incredibly fortunate to do what I do for a living and I want to share that with more people.
A lot of people ask me about some of the encounters that I have, so I know there are people interested to hear about it. My job is to tell someone else’s story, so this is a pretty unique way of me telling my side of those said stories.
PH: You also recently announced that you would be taking part in the first NHL Creator Skills Game/Competition. How did this opportunity come about for you?
JL: When I was at the NHL Winter Classic I ran into a bunch of my friends who are influencers with the NHL. I had mentioned that I would love to do more of that kind of stuff with the league, so I think when this opportunity came to be, they thought of me and reached out. Nothing too crazy.
PH: Is there anything else you would like to share with us hockey fans?
JL: I have nothing else to share, but I would be very curious to hear what the fans would want from a newsletter. I want to do some 1-on-1s like these now and then and bring other voices into it.
I just want to build my own community.
