Our overall media company is, of course, in its ninth year.
But our first bricks-and-mortar offshoot ... will celebrate its first birthday today!
It was on April 29, 2022, that we opened the DK Pittsburgh Sports HQ/shop at 224 Fifth Avenue, Downtown, and we did so for three expressed purposes at the time:
1. We wanted an opportunity post-pandemic to interact personally with our readers and, within that, to introduce newcomers to what we do.
2. We wanted the exposure of having a storefront presence, in addition to the prestige of being in a highly visible portion of the heartbeat of our entire region.
3. We wanted to sell stuff, and we're doing more of that than ever, as evidenced by dozens of boxes of brand new caps, shirts and endless other fare that Dali ordered this month, all of which just arrived this week:
DALI KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Some of the new merch that just arrived into the HQ/shop this week.
And even though those above priorities were probably ranked in just that order, I'm happy to report that, even though we opened amid some challenging circumstances -- Downtown workers still weren't even a quarter of the way back, and all three of our city's teams stunk, in addition to not yet having established a physical presence in the community -- we've managed to turn a modest profit on the HQ/shop over these 12 months, with a very, very promising trajectory ahead.
The main reason for the promise, as one might expect, is that the Downtown workforce is back up to 65% of its 2019 level, our hotels are all the way back to the 2019 level, and there are more residents in the Golden Triangle than ever, now with a population approaching 9,000. That means more feet on the sidewalk, more pulse, more of everything that's good. And hey, things are even looking up, in general, on the sports scene. Particularly for the Pirates, who've got 81 dates of bringing people our way. The past month, in particular, has just been a joy. Really has.
On that note, we're legit celebrating today. Dali and I will both be at the HQ/shop all day, 12-6 p.m. Nothing formal or fancy. But we're both proud of this, we're both grateful for those of you who've come to see us, and beyond grateful for those who this time a year ago contributed those Building Bricks so that she could construct a first-class place that'd make everyone proud to be part of what we do.
INSIDE THE WORKS
• Question for the group: How many of you get your instant sports news from Twitter or Bleacher Report or anywhere else that aggregates other outlets' reporting? I'm not asking for anyone to apologize for it. I do it myself. Rather, I'm trying to get a feel for news-consuming habits for both young and old.
• We're often asked about our HQ/shop merch being available online. It is, and it's right here.
• A reader brought this up this week, so I'll re-share: The six buttons at the bottom of your app can be changed to any teams/leagues you like. Just open your profile -- the image at the very top left -- then thumb down to Customize App, tap Edit, and arrange them any which way you prefer. Can change them seasonally, too, which is what I do.
• Hey, this feature's available for a name-branding sponsorship, as is Danny Shirey's excellent Drive to the Net hockey analysis! Let us know!
• Big plans ahead, via word from Adam Bertram at BoomPress, for our commenting platform. Lots of fun new additions, including the vital -- and long-awaited -- ability for readers to embed photos, videos, GIFs, etc. We can do that now, but only through pasting of URLs, and that's not ideal.
• Travel on tap: Alex Stumpf's in D.C. for the Pirates' series against the Nationals this weekend, and he and Chris Halicke will double-team the next one in St. Petersburg, Fla., for the series against the high-flying Rays. As ever, we aren't messing around with our baseball coverage.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page views for the past week were 608,926, with our weekly goal being 500,000. Our most-read original piece was my Point Park University Friday Insider led by the Steelers drafting Broderick Jones, at 11,244. Broken down by team traffic, articles on the Pirates brought 24.2% of our readership, the Steelers 21.2%, the Penguins 7.5%, Penn State 3.5%, and Pitt 1.4%.
• On the multimedia front, our podcast downloads for the past week were 174,380, with our weekly goal being 150,000, and our YouTube video views for the past week were 146,863, with our weekly goal being 150,000.
• Our company social media accounts are at 49,642 followers on Twitter, 39,245 on Facebook, 24,921 on YouTube, 14,865 on Instagram.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com