We want you to stay with us.
We're not taking no for an answer.
Three weeks ago in this space, I laid bare some challenges we're facing at DK Pittsburgh Sports. One of those, maybe the most ominous, is losing subscribers who no longer can afford to pay because of hardships brought by this pandemic. As anyone at any level of business will attest, once you've lost a customer, you've probably lost them for good.
Except, of course, if you refuse to let them leave. Which is exactly what's happened here. We've renewed or granted more free, one-year subscriptions than we can count, some of those by reaching out to people who canceled or expired, others when people reached out to us.
A few examples of the latter, names withheld:
• 'My account wasn't renewed. Once I get this job working in a Pittsburgh shelter, I will finally have $'
• ''I am sorry I could not get my subscription this year. We lost my husband's job, and I now have Covid. I just want you to know I love your articles and coverage of the Pens and Steelers. I am sorry, but thank you for great articles.'
• 'I really enjoy your work and I will definitely subscribe once all of this is over. We have lost work hours and pay due to this corona crap, and things are a little tight right now. Keep up the good work and I'll look for you free stories in the future.'
•' I have been really meaning to buy a sub to your site year because I have found your knowledge and coverage great. Especially when you go one-on-one with Mark Madden. The issue is, with four kids under the age of 10, plus the pandemic and my wife losing her job because of it, I do not have the extra funds to do so. Especially with trying to make something out of Christmas for the kids this year. It really sucks.'
• 'Lost my job due to corona. I have enjoyed your writing since you covered the Bucs for the PG. I'd love access to DK Sports.'
Others were that much tougher to take, but I'm not inclined to share.
The challenge we face, within this little community here, is letting people know it's OK to ask.
Yes, really.
What we've encountered a lot is that people are reluctant to accept an extended subscription even once it's offered. So I'll counter by letting them know that we've been quietly doing this for years and that so many of those recipients, once they're in a better position in life, eventually come back and pay for others' subscriptions.
Site Stuff's always open to non-subscribers, so this message -- which we'll push via email and social media -- is for everyone: If you've allowed your subscription to lapse over a hardship, reach out to me directly, and I promise to extend it by a full year, personally.
Email me: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com
Don't worry. You'll pay it back. We'll bank on it.
And to everyone who's gotten involved in this, thank you.
THE OTHER DRIVES
All the holiday drives underway, all encouraging:
• Of the maximum 100 Lifetime subscriptions we're offering this month, we've now sold 78. If you're interested in one of the final 22, email me: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com
• We've sold 99 of our standard, single half-off gift subscriptions. If you're interested in one of those, that's right here.
• If you're interested in multiples or a bulk donation to anyone -- and we've been blessed to have a bunch of those -- email Dali: Dali@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Dali continued in recent days to have discussions with prospective investors, in addition to exploring the possibility of selling Green Bay Packers-style symbolic stock in the company. When there's something firm on either front, I'll update. But know that these things aren't quick.
It's all going well. It's encouraging.
TURN ON THOSE ALERTS
We're regularly hearing from readers wondering why the new app doesn't have alerts ... even though it does. You've just got to turn them on.
Simply go to your profile -- icon at the top left corner -- thumb down to Notifications, and tap Select. Turn on the teams/features for which you'd like to receive alerts. If you choose Steelers, Penguins or Pirates, you'll also know anytime we make updates to the corresponding Live Wire files.
You also can leave off anything you don't want:
If you had alerts on under the old app, that wasn't brought over to this new one. You'll have to activate them yourself. We'll work to make that worth your while.
TRIPLE MY PODCASTS
This was the second week I did three Daily Shot podcasts each weekday, and we wound up with 56,234 downloads, down 1.4% from last week but still our second-highest seven-day output since the relaunch of DK Sports Radio.
These have been both fun and easy. I've gotten feedback expressing concern about the increased workload, but please understand I don't ever work from a script and the amount of planning and production on my end is negligible. I basically sit down in the studio, strap on the headphones and blab into the mic about stuff I already know or already researched.
Take your pick of a platform:
Thanks so much for listening!
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our daily page views averaged 53,423 over the past week, down 23.4% from the the previous week. The most-read original piece was my Grind on the Steelers' first loss, at 8,474. Broken down by team, the Steelers brought 33.2% of our traffic, the Penguins 9.5%, the Pirates 8.8%, Pitt 1.8%, Penn State 0.7%, and Duquesne 0.4%.
• Our podcast downloads, again, were 56,234, down 1.4% from the previous week.
• We're at 38,584 (+241) followers on Twitter, we're at 36,968 (-9) followers on Facebook, we're at 14,764 (+1) followers on Instagram. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
