Meet Donnie Mason.
No, seriously, come meet Donnie. Because if he can make it to our fifth anniversary celebration -- Tuesday, July 23, 6 p.m., at Highmark Stadium -- then there's no palatable excuse for anyone to miss.
As a lot of you in our commenting community will know, Donnie's among the best of us. Always one of the first to offer input under any article. Always polite. Always forthcoming. If there's a King Up-Cup, it's probably him.
What you might not know, although he's discussed it on occasion in comments, is that he's had quite the rough ride the past couple of years. Back surgery. A recent operation to remove a cancerous area. And in that time, he had to halt the humanitarian work he does in Russia to return home to Maryland for treatment.
A couple weeks ago, Eric Seeger, a reader in Live Qs asked me if I could identify one subscriber I'd most like to see at the celebration. I responded, without hesitation, that it'd be Donnie. Eric then reached out and asked how he could contact Donnie. Which Eric did.
Long story short: Donnie will be at the celebration, all expenses paid by Eric for his trip from Maryland.
For real.
So ...
Taylor Haase has created a Facebook event page where you can let us know if you're coming or even if you're simply interested. It'll help us plan if you respond in any way.
Thanks in advance, and we all hope to see you!
ALL THE APP ACTIVITY
Remember when I wrote here a few months back about the importance of one particular metric to this business?
It was about daily active app users, or how many different people at any point in a day open our app.
When I wrote it, a lot of readers replied -- understandably -- that they felt left out because they were using other platforms. But the real reason it was important was as a strength indicator, a forecast of future growth, more than any hard tabulation. It shows us both good times and bad in terms of how much stuff our actual subscribers consume, and it does so within the context of a device that's trusted in one's phone. That's as tight a relationship as exists in tech circles.
So, I revisit this today because it's gone very, very well. In fact, I'd argue it's never been better: Our daily active app users, averaged out over the past week, are at 13,329, broken down as 10,748 on Apple, 2,581 on Android. The Android figure, being blunt, is pretty much what it's always been. I'll blame that on flaws within the app itself, as that platform's given us fits forever. But the Apple figure is the highest since the Penguins' most recent Stanley Cup championship in 2017.
Crazy, right?
I'm not sure I fully process why this has happened. Our app downloads and other metrics are good but not explosive. And it's not like this is some sizzling time of year for sports news, since it's arguably the driest.
If I had to guess, based on some reader reactions of late, people seem very happy with the staff we've built as well as the original content that's offered. At least I'd like to think that's what it is. And as a result, they're looking more often to see what we've got.
Regardless of the reason, thank you. Onward, upward.
VETERANS COUNT: 228
It was a huge week in this regard, with 35 military subscriptions bought and our brief minus-24 deficit completely wiped out.
Thank you to everyone who stepped up, as always.
This puts us at 228 military subscriptions bought for the year. Remember, Josh DeNinno at Moon Golf Club is pushing for us to reach 1,000 for the calendar year through his Veterans Challenge to our subscribers. Josh is buying 10 a month himself for a total of 100 in 2019, and he's challenging subscribers to achieve a goal of 1,000 by year's end. The current count is 193, so it's going to be a big climb in the second half.
More pressing, we've currently got 27 veterans requests, my daughter Dara informs, and we had one reader buy three vet subscriptions yesterday -- thank you! -- so we're at a minus-24 status at the moment. Here’s where to contribute. -- DK
LIFETIMES LEFT: 26
These are starting to run out and, as we'd expected, they're accelerating as the supply gets lower. We've sold 74 Lifetime Lunatic subscriptions, including five more this week, so only 26 remain toward our cap of 100.
It costs $299. If you'd like one, buy it here. If you're an existing subscriber and want to go Lifetime, do the same thing, then email us at Help@DKPittsburghSports.com to let us know. We'll refund the remainder of your existing account. -- DK
BECOME A PARTNER
We're always looking to grow our base of business partners, and there currently are several very good opportunities available to take advantage of our unprecedented reach.
Our 2019 media kit has all the info you’d want. Email me directly at Dali@DKPittsburghSports.com to set up a meeting. -- Dali
***premium***
WE'RE LISTENING
• A tip: At the top of every article, there are four buttons. The first three are for sharing that article through Facebook, Twitter or email. The fourth is a shortcut to shoot you straight down to the comments. It's convenient if you've already read the article but want to revisit the comments later. -- DK
• If you're logging in too often, delete the app from your device, power the device down completely, then reinstall the app. This has worked wonders for almost everyone who's tried it. -- DK
• If you enjoy the Hot Button feature and would like to receive app alerts when there's a new entry, open your app, then the menu on the top right corner, then ALERTS. Toggle the new Hot Button icon to ON. We had that added in the past week. -- DK
BACK TO BUSINESS
• New subscribers for 2019 are at 558. You can now track this figure daily at the bottom of the desktop and tablet versions of the site.
• Our daily active app users, averaged out over the past week, are at 13,329, broken down as 10,748 on Apple, 2,581 on Android. That total's plus-452 from the previous week. This figure will always fluctuate with the seasons and the news, so the goal is a steady, gradual increase, initially to 15,000, a number we've never achieved.
• Our daily page views, averaged out over the past 30 days, are at 91,686, The goal with this figure is to average 100,000, a number we've achieved only during the two Stanley Cup runs.
• Our most-hit original article of the past week -- exempting live files -- was my initial reporting on Francisco Cervelli's status at 59,945, also our most-hit file of the year. The Penguins accounted for 209,031 page views, the Pirates 166,921 and the Steelers 108,621.
• We're at 32,638 (+57) followers on Twitter, we're at 32,122 (-29) page likes on Facebook, we're at 11,042 (+70) followers on Instagram. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
• Get our free newsletter with a simple signup! We send out a new one Monday-Friday at 7 a.m.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email us: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com