Kovacevic: How's the HQ/shop doing?

There might not be a business on the continent that doesn't slow down in January and February, and we're no exception on any front.

That naturally includes our storefront -- our Downtown HQ/shop at 224 Fifth Avenue -- though I've got to say that these two months have also come with significantly promising signs for the summer and beyond.

For one, and most important, the foot traffic's visibly increasing, as supported by this data:

Of particular benefit to our slice of the Golden Triangle, PNC's employees have come back to work in the early part of 2023, most of them at least three days per week, some four. And given our proximity to four of the five buildings they own here, that's been massive. And appreciated. In addition to seeing more casual consumers, we're also seeing more of our PNC-employed subscribers (and there are a bunch) stop in and say hello.

For another, there's an increasing familiarity with our presence. Especially after the busy Christmas season, it feels like we're seeing more faces for a second, third, even fourth and fifth time. Some are workers, some are among Downtown's nearly 9,000 permanent residents, and there are even some who make us a destination driving in from a suburb. They'll remember an item they liked from a previous visit and return to grab it.

For yet another, man, we get a lot of tourists. I used to scoff at hearing how tourism was our city's No. 2 industry behind medicine, but one can really feel that within the epicenter of a sea of hotels. In football season, for example, there's an influx of Steelers fans who fly all the way up from Mexico just for the weekend, and they're hungry for our kind of merch. The past two days alone, we had one woman who was here from England scoop up $200-plus of T-shirts, then a mother and son from Edmonton who'd flown all the way here so that the boy could watch his two favorite NHL teams the previous night. The boy, who earns his living in Alberta refereeing children's games, bought Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang Funko Pop figures, as well as becoming our newest subscriber to the site.

On top of all that, on the same day, it was my pleasure to meet two Original Lunatics, with us since inception, who were in town on other business but made it a priority to stop and say hello. We sat at our chairs back by the studio and talked Penguins, Pirates and a lot more.

Overall, the place is profitable, albeit not excessively, and we're not even a year old yet, having opened on April 29 of 2022. But the main objectives of having a place to get to know our readers/listeners, as well as generally growing the brand awareness ... that's greatly exceeded our expectations.

Dali's here every day, I'm here every day that I'm in town, so come on by!

SEEKING PODCAST SPONSORS

In this space a week ago, we were proud to introduce a new partner in Family Table, an independent startup in the Manchester section of Pittsburgh that's owned by executive chef Michael Harding, a Crafton native and longtime DKPS subscriber. And we were happier still to get as much upbeat feedback about the special that Chef Mike's offering to apply the code DK20 when prompted on their site to get 20% off your entire first order, plus free delivery.

(I actually just got done eating a chicken pot pie that was part of our family's weekly order, and my sincere complements to the chef on that. Haven't enjoyed one of those in ages, much less homemade by a pro.)

We also had a handful of other outreaches in the past few days, and we're eager and excited for the chance to work with them, as well.

So, how about you?

In this same space a week ago, I described how rotten the advertising climate's become and, since then, we've now seen the collapse of the local regional sports network for that very reason. It's tough, tough, tough to get ads, and believe me, we're feeling it, as well. But we're trying and, as ever, we're turning first to our community, in particular the business people we've got, for potential sponsorships of the Daily Shot podcasts I do every morning.

Help us, and we'll help you right back.

If you're interested, email me directly: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com

INSIDE THE WORKS

• You hardly ever hear me talk about page views, but yesterday brought 86,571, our highest all year, and it came without the boost of a single live game file or a single new Steelers article. Cory Giger's report on the cable collapse, my Penguins column on Ron Hextall, my Point Park University Friday Insider with the Bud Dupree lede, and Danny Shirey's report on Kasperi Kapanen's waiving ... each topped 4,000, and Cory's alone was triple that. And it feels good. Like you're counting on us when the more meaningful news occurs.

• A live video show with Ramon Foster this Monday? With both of us on location in Nashville? Yeah? Well, OK, but only because you insisted.

• This hasn't been announced yet, but in the interest of finding more completely new subscribers -- always vital -- we're offering an introductory deal of $1 for each of the first four months. This is part of our ambition to achieve 1,000 new signups in 2023. After that brief period, everyone pays the same price, of course.

• Always bear in mind, as an aside, that anyone who can't afford our full price -- at any point -- only needs to shoot Dali or me an email. We work with anyone to get through tough times. (We've actually done quite a bit of that in the past week alone, and we're happy to say we've kept every single one of those in the fold.)

• Similarly, if you're aware of someone whose subscription elapsed because of a hardship of any kind, feel free to pass that along to them. As I tell everyone who reaches out, we have no intention of losing anyone over a few bucks.

• Our BoomPress developers are checking out an odd hiccup that knocked out the Android app for a couple hours the other morning. They believe it's connected to an unrelated deploy they made that morning, which would mean it's a one-time event and no cause for worry.

• Travel on tap: Taylor Haase is in St. Louis today, after which she and I will double-team the Penguins' swing through Nashville, then Florida, after which I'll do a second tour of duty with the Pirates in Bradenton. ... Alex Stumpf will be spelled for a few days down there by myself, and then Chris Halicke, but only after the latter spends a week in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine. ... Corey Crisan's got a bunch of Pitt basketball travel ahead, too. And yes, that'll include the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

BACK TO BUSINESS

• Our page views for the past week were 408,113, with our weekly goal being 500,000. Our most-read original piece was Cory's aforementioned coverage of the cable collapse, at 11,043. Broken down by team traffic, articles on the Penguins brought 29.2% of our readership, the Pirates 16.9%, the Steelers 10.4%, Penn State 2.9%, and Pitt 2.9%. 

• On the multimedia front, our podcast downloads for the past week were 130,834, with our weekly goal being 150,000, and our YouTube video views for the past week were 75,657, with our weekly goal being 150,000.

• Our company social media accounts are at 49,162 (+99) followers on Twitter, 39,017 (+29) on Facebook, 20,549 (+87) on YouTube, 14,838 (+26) on Instagram, 430 (+12) on TikTok.

• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com

• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com