Our fifth anniversary celebration, or Lunatic Bash V or whatever anyone else might want to call it, is coming up tomorrow: Tuesday, July 23, 6 p.m., at Highmark Stadium.
We've talked about it a lot. We've written about it a lot. That's because we care about it a lot.
Know who else cares?
Willy Peppers!
The one and same from our comments section, Willy reached out to us over the weekend -- with trademark enthusiasm -- to let it be known that he'll personally be catering this event! And he's got the extensive professional experience to make that happen, as Matt Sunday can attest from frequently being fed by Willy during intermissions at PPG Paints Arena!
So yeah, we'll have free, fine food. We'll also have a bunch of other giveaway fodder, from Bricks, mugs, flash drives to raffle baskets from our various business partners. My wife Dali's been driving around collecting such things from our friends at PNC Bank, Point Park University, Moon Golf Club and more. Best of all, a lot of them will be on hand, too, people who've meant so, so much to this venture.
All we need is you. Come on down. Even if it's just long enough for one of us to thank you personally.
Let us know on our Facebook event page.
AGGRESSIVE APPROACH
Not everything has gone smoothly here over these now-nearly five years. It never does for a startup, and one can double that when it's a startup doing something no one else had tried on the continent.
We were inventing this venture on the fly. Not every idea panned out. Not every beat we covered panned out. And no, not every employee worked out. Being here isn't a job as much as it's a passion. Again, that's the nature of a startup. That's not a fit for everyone, to say the least, and it isn't easy to tell that from an interview or a resume.
But look at the staff we've built now, and I'd hope it's easier to see why we held firm to a high standard rather than hanging onto unproductive ideas, beats or employees just for the sake of hanging on. We're as strong or stronger on every beat than we've ever been, and I'd welcome any debate to the contrary.
Here's what I don't welcome: People on the outside, particularly in local media, portraying us as something we're not. They're threatened. In a couple cases, they're either shrinking or in total retreat. It's to be expected, even if we don't do it ourselves with other media, that they'll take their shots at us and/or me. That's the nature of succeeding in business. You're instantly the bad guy.
We'll continue not criticizing their work or business practices. It's a waste of energy and, for the most part, readers get turned off, including our own.
But what's going to change from now on is that we, as a company -- not just me but all of us -- are going to be the ones more aggressively defining who and what we are, what we've achieved, what our ambitions are for the future. You'll see it here, on social media and everywhere we go.
I'll take full blame for not having been aggressive enough on that front over the years. We have a great story to tell, one unlike any other, and we're going to be the ones telling it, not any ex-employees, social media trolls or competing outlets. We'll do it ourselves.
That began over the weekend in a special, no-holds-barred Live Qs at 5, in which readers were encouraged to ask me anything about this business.
TAYLOR'S FINE
Everyone asking about Taylor Haase should know she's home doing fine following a planned kidney surgery this week.
Everyone also should know that, within hours, she was texting us from her hospital bed, to say 'I LIVED,' and soon to inform us of things we were all messing up on the site. The latter is how we really knew she was OK.
She'll be back to work, of course, at the pace with which she's comfortable.
LIFETIMES RUNNING OUT
These are starting to run out and, as we'd expected, they're accelerating as the supply gets lower. We've sold 78 Lifetime Lunatic subscriptions, including two more this week, so only 22 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
VETERANS COUNT: 238
We've had 238 military subscriptions bought for the year, and we're in good shape in terms of filling requests. 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. Here’s where to contribute. -- 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
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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 567. 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 13,121, broken down as 10,545 on Apple, 2,576 on Android. That total's minus-208 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 88,212, 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 reporting from St. Louis on getting together with Francisco Cervelli at 10,365. The Pirates accounted for 116,261 page views, the Pirates 100,087 and the Steelers 80,896.
• We're at 32,703 (+65) followers on Twitter, we're at 32,080 (-42) page likes on Facebook, we're at 11,087 (+45) followers on Instagram. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
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