Every business, at some stage, needs that extra nudge to achieve the next level.
Well, as they say in these parts, here we go.
On behalf of Dali Kovacevic, Dale Lolley and our entire staff at DK Pittsburgh Sports, please join us in welcoming two of ... well, you ... to our company as partners: David Rosenblatt and Ramin Baghai.
And when I say two of you, I mean that. Because David and Ramin are both longtime subscribers and readers, as well as local natives who've devoutly followed the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates right here, the same way you have. So, when we put out the call in this space a few months back in seeking that extra-nudge type of investment, they were among several who responded. All of whom were subscribers. All appreciated.
David's worked for Intuit in Silicon Valley and BlackRock on Wall Street and he's been investing and building companies on his own for the past 15 years. He grew up in Squirrel Hill and went to Allderdice High School, went to Pitt football games with his dad, from Tony Dorsett’s freshman year through Dan Marino’s senior year, then went to Penn State for its last NCAA championship. His dogs are named ‘Steelie Bettis’ and ‘Goldie Clemente.’
"I read DKPS every morning," David said, "and I found it natural to invest and help build the highest quality Pittsburgh sports media property for the best fans in the world."
Ramin works for Google. He grew up in the South Hills, attended the Steelers' Super Bowl victory in Detroit (but only after a harried trip in which he had to fly out of Chicago and drive overnight to pull it off), and he was hooked up with our site after leaving the region for work, hoping to stay in touch with his teams.
"I hope to reach others outside the city to help spread the word," Ramin said. "And with my background in technology and marketing, I hope to help build on the great foundation that the team here has built."
Speaking for myself, I can't state this strongly enough: We weren't about to add anyone who wasn't all-in. And these guys are. We were looking for advice and guidance on the business/tech/marketing ends, and we were looking for people who were already passionate about this pioneering company, and both exceeded all of that.
As ever, I'll be in the comments below if you've got any questions, as will David and Ramin if you've got anything for them.
THE IMPACT
What does this mean for readers?
Well, on the surface, not much changes:
• Dali and I are still the majority owners and all that, so don't get any crazy ideas. It's as independent as ever.
• The company's financially healthy. If anything, that's true to an abnormal extent when compared to most media companies. We're in a very good spot, as David and Ramin can attest.
• This won't be about adding beats or reporters or something like that.
Again, we're looking to grow.
What we want to do, plain and simple, is to add more subscribers. Dali and I felt like we were at the point where we wanted to push harder toward people who haven't tried us yet or who haven't even heard of us, rather than following my usual path of adding beats and reporters. And with David's help on the business end and Ramin's on the tech/marketing end, we'll have more idea flow, more conversation and more capability than ever to achieve precisely that type of growth, right here in Pittsburgh and beyond.
A FRIEND UNVEILED
We also had another investor in our company, this going back nearly six years, and he'd always preferred to stay private in that regard ... until now, upon learning of our newest partners.
Meet (finally) Chris Hylen, our longtime friend, advisor and so much more:

DKPS
Chris Hylen, CEO of Reltio.
Chris is the CEO of California-based Reltio, a data management firm, and he approached us way back in the winter of 2015 to play an enormous part in our formative years, and he's been with us ever since. He's proud beyond words of being a Wilkinsburg boy who found a way to succeed, he's a Steelers maniac who's had the hypocycloid stitched onto his chairman's chair, and let's just say he's run up a few frequent flier miles over the years chasing his teams.
And yes, Chris, too, was and remains a reader/subscriber first and foremost.
I've dropped hints about Chris over the years but always while respecting his wishes, so this is a fun little release, on top of everything else. He's meant a lot to us, both professionally and personally. (He's also the guy who had that wild DK/Dali joint bobblehead made that some of you might've noticed on our studio set.)
Quite the team we've got, huh?
WEEKLY APP TIPS
Sharing ways to make your app experience even better:
• Activate your alerts!
With our old site, we had 19,000-plus people receiving alerts. With this one, it's still fewer than 1,000. And that's because we're waiting on you to make that happen.
To do so, enter your profile/account area by tapping the little circle at the top left of your app. Thumb down a bit to find Notifications, then hit Select. That's where you'll find all your choices, which should be self-explanatory. (And hey, go ahead and be that renegade who opts in to the Robert Morris basketball updates!)
Our previous two tips:
• We've got space for only the three big team buttons at the bottom of the app -- Steelers, Penguins, Pirates -- but we've also got team pages for our Pitt, Penn State, Duquesne and Robert Morris coverage. Just tap the hamburger menu at the top right, find your school and tap to see a full, beautiful display of all our latest pieces by Chris Carter, Jarrod Prugar and others. On the desktop/laptop, of course, we've got ample space, and all the team/college buttons are across the top.
• Get an avatar! Only 847 of our readers currently have an avatar for their comments, and that makes for a whole lot of blah, gray nothingness. Let's change that this week. Open up your profile -- top left of the app or site -- and you'll see a circle at the top, along with a little camera. Either take or enter your image right there. (Warning: There's currently a defect in the app where it can't handle pics of significant size, so you'll probably have to do this on the laptop until it's fixed.)
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page views for the past week were 523,728, down 26.8% from the previous week. Our most-read original piece was Taylor Haase's coverage of the Penguins' assistant equipment manager helping Sidney Crosby score a goal, at 48,099. Broken down by team, articles on the Penguins brought 31.9% of our traffic, the Steelers 17.8%, the Pirates 14.7%.
• Our new subscribers for the past week were at 47, down 92 from the previous week.
• Our new app downloads for the past week were 100 for Apple, down 12 from the previous week, and 48 for Android, down 29 from the previous week.
• Our podcast downloads for the past week were 81,593, down 2.3% from the previous week.
• We're at 40,442 (+77) followers on Twitter, we're at 37,082 (+43) followers on Facebook, we're at 14,468 (-1) followers on Instagram, and we're at 1,244 (+32) followers on YouTube. 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
• Random geographic fun: We had 2 unique users in Trinidad and Tobago, and I'd just love to believe that one's in Trinidad, the other in Tobago. Alas, there's no real way to tell.