ST. LOUIS -- We've had a busy, busy week of business meetings, and there are a lot of bubbly possibilities percolating from that. Which is cool, particularly related to the tech initiative I broached in this space a couple weeks ago. There are a lot of lines in a lot of waters toward creating an all-new site/app that'll make everyone proud.
In the interim, one thing's close to certain: We're almost out of Lifetime subscriptions.
As in, forever.
We've got exactly 10 left in the current batch of 100. Once those are gone, we'll have sold 600 total when including the initial wave from 2017. As common sense, no subscription-based venture would want to go too far with an initiative like that, if only because it cuts off future years of recurring revenue.
This isn't a sales pitch. We'll almost surely sell them whether or not I mention it here, based on ample precedent. Rather, I'm simply stressing that, for a slew of reasons related to what's up in that opening paragraph, we're highly unlikely to do Lifetimes after this round.
If you want one of the final 10, they cost $299 right 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 subscription.
Thanks to everyone who's committed on this front. We value all subscriptions, needless to say, but there's some extra lunacy involved in being stuck with us until Bob Nutting sells the damned team.
MEETINGS, MEETINGS
Regarding the meetings I mentioned at the very top: My wife Dali and I were in a bunch of them all week, all outstanding, all very encouraging toward how this site can continue to grow. She'll also be flying straight out to Anaheim, where both of us will have even more meetings. (While I additionally cover Pirates-Angels.)
There isn't anything concrete yet to share from those, but I do have this question to pose for the readership: Have you ever used a web-based app on your phone or mobile device? Meaning one that's built off a web-based browser rather than out of Apple's App Store or Android's Google Play?
If so, I'd love to hear about it.
ON DECK: BASEBALL WRITER
If you missed it yesterday, John Perrotto has stepped down due to health concerns, and that'll leave me and Hunter Homistek splitting the final seven weeks of the Pirates' schedule, barring someone coming aboard very quickly. And we aren't envisioning the latter.
In communicating with editor-in-chief Dale Lolley, our objective will be to do this right rather than rushing it. If that means hiring soon, wonderful. If it doesn't, it doesn't. If that means hiring local, wonderful. If it doesn't, it doesn't. All that matters is finding the right fit -- a diligent, professional reporter capable of producing original, imaginative content, coupled with a passion for baseball -- and we won't attach a timetable to it.
Anyone with experience covering professional baseball, preferably the majors, please feel free to send a full resume directly to me: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com
VETERAN COUNT: 282
Early this year, our friend Josh DeNinno at Moon Golf Club came up with the concept of pushing all of us to reach 1,000 full-year military subscriptions for the calendar year through his Veterans Challenge. And to back that, Josh is buying 10 a month himself for a total of 100, leaving 900 for everyone else.
To date, we've sold 282, including one generous contribution of 10 from one subscriber at the beginning of the week. And that's awesome. And appreciated. It'll be a heck of a climb to meet the goal, but it's not impossible.
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 my wife at Dali@DKPittsburghSports.com to set up a meeting.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• New subscribers for 2019 are at 633. You can 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 12,553, broken down as 9,940 on Apple, 2,613 on Android. 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 83,677. 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 was my Tuesday Takes at 19,472. The Steelers accounted for 192,916 page views, the Pirates 145,168, and the Penguins 98,576.
• We're at 32,953 (+81) followers on Twitter, we're at 32,037 (-14) page likes on Facebook, we're at 11,265 (+55) followers on Instagram. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
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