If anyone wants to set me off by saying the wrong thing about this site, I've got a couple guaranteed winners:
1. The site's all about me.
2. We don't write as much anymore
That first one's the worst. Look at the people on this staff. Look at their resumes. Look at the scope, the quality and the relevance of their work. Look at how we promote all of our people and what they do. This place stopped being all about my work less than a year after launch, and that'll never change. If I'd really wanted it to be about one individual, believe me, I'd have kept it that way.
That second one, the one about writing ... wow, it just blows my mind. But ever since the multimedia portion of what we're doing erupted beginning about a year ago, it's something I see, hear and read regularly, even from our own subscribers. And, with all due appreciation and respect for those paying to be here, it's just plain nuts. It really is.
Here are a few things to know:
• In the past week, we had our greatest readership of any point in our seven years of existence: 1,131,938 page views, according to Google Analytics. I'm not sure why, beyond a convergence of a couple big events and some terrific writing, but I am sure that readership means readers. Meaning someone's writing to get those readers.
• In the past three days, one after the other, we've offered an extraordinary In-Depth feature across the top of our home page: Alex Stumpf on the Pirates' development plan, Dave Molinari on Mike Sullivan's record-setting tenure, and now today Tom Reed's wonderful experience with former Steelers center Jeff Hartings. My contribution to all three of these pieces was a big, fat zilch. The ideas, the execution, the production ... all of it was by these talented writers.
• We've never come close to doing the amount of In-Depth writing you're currently seeing. It takes time, it takes money, and it doesn't deliver anywhere near the page views that, say, brazen clickbaiting does. But we're committed to it because this is what you told us you wanted from us.
• We've never had a sustained full-time person dedicated to in-depth writing the way we've had now for more than a year in Tom. That's a huge commitment that most media companies aren't willing to make anymore. (Which, by the way, is how we were fortunate enough to land him.) We did make that commitment because it's part of our commitment to you.
• Focusing just on my own work, I've now written 138 full-length columns in this calendar year. That's an average of 14 per month, or roughly 3-4 per week. And that's to say nothing of other news pieces, Live Qs at 5, and this Site Stuff feature right here. I've never written as often as I have for this site.
I don't care what perception's given off by the multimedia. I'm not into perception in any walk of life. I'm into reality. And what's above is the reality. The writing component to this venture's never been greater -- in quality or quantity -- than it is now.
If anyone has a problem with videos or podcasts, for whatever reason, scroll right past them. Trust me, the numbers will powerfully illustrate that most people don't. They've been extremely popular and, for that matter, lucrative for this business. They're part of who we are.
But please, don't use them to suggest we aren't writing as well or as much. Because that'd be wholly and provably incorrect.
HERE COMES THE SWAG
A week ago in this space, Dali asked via an online survey your thoughts on a new line of merchandise we'll be offering this fall, and hundreds of you were kind enough to respond. That alone's appreciated. It'll really help when ordering from the manufacturer.
Your most popular items, per the survey:
1. Blue T-shirt
2. Blue hoodie
3. Charcoal hoodie
4. Black T-shirt
5. Coffee mug
Our expectation remains that we'll have all this for sale by mid-November, in plenty of time for Black Friday and the Christmas selling season. Obviously, we'll keep everyone apprised right here.
PENN STATE 108, PITT 100
This one could use a kickstart.
Our drive to achieve 1,000 total free subscriptions for Pitt and Penn State students still has the Nittany Lions in the lead, 108-100. We've begun distributing these to the students, and we'll likely run out before long -- kids don't take long to snap up free stuff! -- so we'll need to keep this moving to continue the program.
If you'd like to contribute to the drive, email me directly -- DK@DKPittsburghSports.com -- and, after you hear my thanks, Dali will reach out with the rest. The cost of either a Pitt subscription or a Penn State subscription is $20 each. You can contribute as many as you'd like. Every contribution counts, large and small, and they're all appreciated.
MILITARY DRIVE: 707
Our concurrent campaign to match 2,000 military veterans to free one-year subscriptions saw 24 purchased this week for a total of 707.
We're hoping the pace picks up soon to have a shot at the target by year's end. We hit it last year on Veterans Day, fittingly enough, and that's coming up Nov. 11.
If you'd like to contribute, just like the college drive, email me directly: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com. The cost of these also is $20 each.
WEEKLY APP TIPS
Ways to make the app experience even better:
• We don't yet have a set button to track every single file we create -- it's on the list -- but here's a handmade link you can bookmark and use whenever for the exact same purpose. That's for desktop. If you'd like to do this on the app, open our menu, tap inside the search field at the top, tap the magnifying glass, and it's right there.
• If you ever want to check the newest comments on a thread and have that include the newest replies, tap the SORT button atop the thread and choose (Newest Incl. Replies). Really useful.
• A reader messaged recently saying she loves the app, loves the site ... except that the type size was too small for her. That reminded us that we haven't mentioned here in too long that we have an easy remedy on the app: At the top right corner of every article, you'll see the standard sharing icon and, just to the left of it, a couple of capital As. Tap the latter until you have the type size you prefer.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page views for the past week were 1,131,938, up 62.9% from a week ago. Our most-read original piece was Dale Lolley's interview with Troy Polamalu, at 68,903. Broken down by team, articles on the Steelers brought 33.8% of our traffic, the Penguins 19%, Penn State 6.4%, the Pirates 5.9%, and Pitt 2.4%.
• Our new subscribers for the past week were at 92, up 40 from a week ago.
• Our podcast downloads for the past week were 166,338, up 2% from a week ago.
• Our YouTube video views for the past week were 58,340, down 24% from a week ago.
• We're at 42,449 (+1) followers on Twitter, we're at 37,154 (+34) followers on Facebook, we're at 14,516 (-9) followers on Instagram, and we're at 8,455 (+129) followers on YouTube. These figures are just for our official company accounts on each of those platforms, not including any of our individual accounts.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Random trivia fun, to be read in an Alex Trebek voice: According to my Swarm app, this is the non-Pittsburgh baseball stadium I've visited most often in the past six years, this is the non-Pittsburgh football stadium I've visited most often, and this is the non-Pittsburgh hockey arena I've visited most often. (And no, the football one isn't a tie.)