One of the few things I've seldom discussed in this weekly feature is how much money we're making. If only because, well, no private company does.
For the first time in our eight-year history, I'll do that.
Because this burgeoning business, born from nothing but a dubious idea because I was really mad at my newspaper bosses one night, is about to make a million bucks in a calendar year.
No, for real.
Projections are just projections, and there are still four months and change left in the year, but we're currently on a pace to achieve more than $1.1 million in total revenues. And when it happens, it'll blow away the previous mark of roughly $800,000, set just last year.
That figure combines subscription revenue, sponsorships, programmatic advertising on the app/site, and programmatic advertising on podcasts and videos. I'm not going to get into percentages and so forth -- hey, come on -- but let's just say that three of those four streams are on the rise, with only programmatic advertising on the app/site declining. And even that decline's been modest with a chance of catching up.
Now, of course, revenue means nothing if it's being overrun by expenses. At least not to places that are run responsibly and setting themselves up for long-term futures as opposed to say, short-term selloffs.
I'm not divulging specifics on expenses, but let's just say on this count that they've increased with the addition of unprecedented personnel covering the Steelers, a much larger role for Ramon Foster, the full-time commitment to Pitt football/basketball, more behind-the-scenes help for Eddie Provident on the multimedia, and we'll soon be making another full-time hire on the latter front. There've also been across-the-board increases in salary, as well as increases in travel and other costs.
None of that prevents a profit from being made by year's end, and we're already in the process -- Dali and David Rosenblatt are handling that, actually -- of planning how to put that right back into further growth.
Never better, my friends. Never better.
INSIDE THE WORKS
• We'll finally restart the Veterans Subscription drive next week. It'll be the headline entry on this very feature. We've still had readers contributing throughout, and their figure will be recognized at the outset. As ever, our company provides free subscriptions to all active-duty military, and our readers -- at their wish years ago -- step up annually for those who've already served.
• The HQ/shop yesterday had its busiest day since the grand opening. What fun. Seriously. Front to finish. Dali, Eddie and I were there, and we'll be back today, too.
• As visitors to the HQ/shop yesterday can attest, I was halfway through a Steelers column ... and just fizzled. It was crap. Couldn't be published. This happens more often than one might think. It's a worthy concept, but I didn't have the info, interviews I'd needed. I'll try again early in the coming week after they're back from Jacksonville.
• Dale Lolley's in Jacksonville for Steelers-Jaguars this weekend. That'll represent the last game that won't be triple-covered the rest of the way, meaning with on-location coverage. Dale, Chris Halicke and I are going everywhere. And that's to say nothing of additional written content from Matt Williamson and Ramon's postgame report card.
• Special nod here to Chris, who's been a godsend on not one but two fronts for us. Dale and Alex Stumpf both had reasons to be running on fumes this week, and having Chris doing exemplary work on Steelers and Pirates ... man, we've needed this for a long time. But even then, we've been spoiled by the quality.
• One down note this week: As can be seen below, we need to get these Pitt numbers up. Corey Crisan's all over training camp. He and Eddie will both be at the revived Backyard Brawl. Spread the word.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page views for the past week were 403,510, with our goal being 500,000. Our most-read original piece was my Steelers-Seahawks column from Acrisure Stadium, at 10,610. Broken down by team traffic, articles on the Steelers brought 24.4% of our readership, the Pirates 16.9%, the Penguins 6.7%, Penn State 2.1%, and Pitt 1.1%.
• On the multimedia front, our podcast downloads for the past week were 206,475, with our goal being 200,000, and our YouTube video views for the past week were 140,804, with our goal being 100,000. Obviously a big week on this front.
• Our company social media accounts are at 46,490 followers on Twitter, 37,751 on Facebook, 14,578 on Instagram, 15,703 on YouTube.
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