It's been a few days of doom and gloom, and we've undoubtedly got a few more days, weeks, whatever still ahead.
I'm not here to pile on. In fact, I'll invest this weekend's feature focusing mostly on what's gone OK for this particular small company amid the coronavirus.
First off, everyone's healthy, as far as we know. I haven't heard from a reader who's been afflicted, either. Wonderful start. Let's keep it that way.
To the business:
• Our page views actually went up this week vs. last week, by 5.92 percent. This is surprising, but then, the Steelers generated a bunch of news, the Pirates were cooperative in getting us interviews, and our staff was able to deliver you some of the more ambitious material we'd promised. We're grateful for all of this.
• Page views are nice, but their primary value is in producing programmatic advertising revenue. The amount that advertisers pay plunged 30 percent over the course of the week.
• App sessions are way down at minus-33 percent. That's crazy. But what I think that means is readers recognize there isn't a need to open the app nearly as often, and that's difficult to dispute.
• New subscriptions, meaning people who are completely new to the site, have ground to a virtual halt. Seriously, four total in the past seven days.
• The contributions of military subscriptions plunged to just 12 in the past week, and five of those came from one individual, Paul Olijar. We're continuing to process all requests, of course, and there's actually been an uptick in those.
• Renewals, on the other hand, remained strong, ranging within our usual 80-90 percent level. And the number of outright cancellations, meaning anyone who sought to abruptly quit, was one. (That individual had a hardship, and we extended his term by a year at no charge.)
• Our sponsors are standing by us, but I wouldn't be surprised -- or blame them -- if that changes at some point. Some businesses are being affected far more directly than others.
What's it all mean?
Hey, who knows anything right now?
But I'll share with you the same thing Dale Lolley, my wife and I have shared with the staff: The business absolutely will emerge just fine on the other side of all this. It won't be any fun. It already isn't. But that's the priority, the emerging-just-fine thing. That's the goal. That will happen. We've planned, we've counted, we've projected, and we're confident that we're ready.
The most uplifting aspect of the past few days from the business perspective is that you've stuck with us. Given everything we've long seen about this community, that can't be a surprise to anyone here. It's been five-plus years for a lot of us, and everyone who's followed since has been welcomed just as same.
We'll undoubtedly ask your support in various ways -- not monetarily, but more along the lines of sharing, promoting -- once the app launches.
Thank you, as always, for being with us.
EVERY SINGLE DAY
For anyone who's not noticed, I've written a full Grind column every single day since this began, now 12 in a row. That'll continue for as long as it's feasible. There isn't much I can do in my life to help people beyond blathering about sports, so I'll keep right on blathering.
HEY, WHY NOT?
Our new logo on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is practicing excellent social distancing:
NEW APP UPDATE
Another good thing happened this week: I had an hourlong meeting with our new developers yesterday -- via video conference, of course -- to continue work on our new app.
This session concentrated almost entirely on your experience with our live content, trying to make it as vibrant and visible as possible. Let's just say for now that it'll be the single most accessible element on the app, right where you'd want it, right where you'll never have to wonder what's happening with your favorite team at any given moment. And we do mean moment.
It's getting pretty close to beta testing, which will involve select readers who've already generously offered to participate in that important step. And once those readers give it the green light, it'll be launched. -- DK
MILITARY DRIVE TO 1,500: 352
Josh DeNinno, our friend at Moon Golf Club, is challenging our subscribers to step up with 1,500 veteran subscription purchases in 2020, commemorating his course's 15th anniversary. And in the seven weeks since he's done so, our count is at 352, including 22 bulk purchases.
We've obviously got a very long way to go, but there's been a great early reaction to our having reduced the cost of these to half-price, now $19.99 for an annual, as we've done with other gift subscriptions. On top of that, Moon Golf Club will match 30 each month, beginning with this one.
Let's do this. Here's where.
Or, if you’re interested in making a bulk purchase, please email me directly: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com -- DK
***premium***
BACK TO BUSINESS
• New paid subscribers for 2020 -- not including gifts, military, returning/renewing subscribers -- are at 95.
• Our daily page views, averaged out over the past 30 days, are at 76,718. The goal with this figure is to average 100,000, a number we've achieved regularly only during the two Stanley Cup runs, but that's obviously not going to be realistic for a while.
• Our most-hit original article of the past week was Dale Lolley's coverage of the Steelers signing Derek Watt at 10,863. The Steelers accounted for 212,100 page views, the Steelers 115,297, the Pirates 62,132 and Pitt 15,902.
• We're at 35,943 (+18) followers on Twitter, we're at 32,119 (+36) page likes on Facebook, we're at 13,744 (+82) followers on Instagram. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
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