This fall, upon the conclusion of the Major League Baseball season, Alex Stumpf will be promoted to a position of enterprise/feature writing across all beats. He broached it with us a year ago, and it'll finally come to pass. This is what he wants to do. The capital-J journalism. He's good. He's earned it.
We'll be stronger for it.
Over these past few weeks, including on this very Wednesday night, I've been interviewing people from all over the continent and all walks of life to add to our staff. The first-priority hire will need to do baseball, obviously, but also other stuff. We've heard from people who were recently laid off at national outlets, we've heard from people at newspapers, and we've heard from students right out of college. I have no idea who we'll choose, but the focus will be journalism, just as with Alex's new role.
We'll be stronger for this, too. More capable than ever of delivering what our readers have long told us they see as subscription-level material.
Alex, Taylor Haase, Corey Crisan and even Chris Halicke, operating remotely out of Texas, represent the full-time staff that's working alongside me at the heart of what we do editorially. We believe in all of them. Just as we aim to believe in the new hire or hires, once all of that plays out, hopefully before the fall.
Why are we doing this now?
Simple: Dali and I have been discussing for quite a while now how we want DK Pittsburgh Sports to look heading into our 10th year -- our ninth anniversary's later this month -- but more important, beyond. She has her visions on the business end, I've got mine editorially and yet, those ultimately have to intersect. The expectations we set for one, vitally, need to match the other.
Tangibly, to get new subscribers on the business side, we need faster, more modern tech but also more valuable content. To keep our existing subscribers, which is always atop any list we put together, we need the same but especially when it comes to the journalism. We need stories that resonate. We need original angles, thoughtful analysis, research and interviews that result in pieces that make our readers feeling like they did well to trust us with their money.
And intangibly, internally, we need a sense of common purpose, a common pride, both in each other and in the company, which I've forever felt is forged best by literally working together rather than separately. We need a lot more togetherness, a lot more teamwork.
Earlier this week, Danny Shirey shared on Twitter that he'd been let go here. That's accurate. He'd been full-time, and we'd let him know he could stay with us on a per-article basis where he could continue doing hockey analysis, including Drive to the Net, at the same scale we pay Matt Williamson for football analysis. He rejected it after a day. Which is fine. We'd have respected his decision either way. As I told him, none of this was any reflection on his hockey analysis but, rather, that we didn't feel, for several reasons, there was a fit on our full-time staff.
And that was it. No ill will. No drama. Everyone had choices to make along the way, those choices were exercised on all sides of the equation, and there wasn't a fit. Danny's a terrific talent. We hope he finds that fit, and we're sure he will.
Our choice, after several months of back-and-forth on this, was to move this company forward in the vision that we have for the company.
I'm going to get blunt here: We have to be able to make decisions like that without having some of the professional insults being flung my way in the Penguins Feed comments after Danny's announcement on Twitter. Doubly so when no one could conceivably know why any decision gets made at any level of any company.
I say this all the time: We're not a reality-TV show here, though we're often treated that way, probably because of features like Site Stuff and all the rest of our transparency. We aren't characters. This isn't a soap. We're a media company and, by the way, we're a media company that's had less turnover than any other major outlet around here since our launch. But it seems to make a bigger difference here, as a lot of you fairly pointed out in those same comments, because of our openness, our transparency and how our staffers regularly engage with the readers.
Think about this: Can you name the past 4-5 people who left any other major outlet around here in the past handful of years? How about just one or two? No? Well, why is that? Because I could name a couple dozen just off the top of my head. People who were fired, who quit, who were snatched away, who were phased out. Maybe as many as 30. Not kidding.
Is the transparent approach a mistake on our part?
I sure wouldn't like to think so. But man, there are times when I wonder. Particularly when I hear from people in those comments who make it sound like we're supposed to represent some grand exception to what's very much an industry rule. Reporters are jumping from outlet to outlet all over creation. Most of them aren't working on contracts, and the few who do have contracts that are spectacularly breakable in Pennsylvania. Heck, we hear from them ourselves every other day, even when they're gainfully employed!
And we get singled out when there's one move that gets made?
Bluntest of all: Spotlight or not, continuously getting attacked by the same noisy element in local media or not, Dali and I will continue to do what we feel is right for our company. Our hearts and souls are invested in this. That's how we've made it to almost a full decade against all odds. That's how we'll continue it for that much deeper into the future.
This is our life's work. We're not satisfied, but we're damned proud of what's already here. And we're grateful for everyone who's contributed along the way by, in part, recognizing what Dali and I put into this 365 days a year and why.
To anyone who thinks of us as anything less than that, or in any other cynical or nefarious terms, there are all kinds of nameless, faceless, sterile behind-the-corporate-wall entities that might make for a more satisfying user experience for you. But that's not going to be us. Ever.
I'll be in comments, as always, but it'll likely be with a shorter fuse than usual. I'm honestly sick of this theme. We will not operate this place while wearing handcuffs. We'll do whatever's needed to make DK Pittsburgh Sports stronger tomorrow than it is today.
MILITARY DRIVE: 254
Our annual Military Drive, aimed at connecting 1,000 veterans of our Armed Forces to a one-year subscription, brought 12 subscriptions bought for the week leading into a new total of 254. We're still in good shape toward the goal of getting it done by Veterans Day Nov. 11.
Here's how it works: We sell a military subscription for $20, covering a full year for any veteran. That's one-third of the regular price. However many you'd wish to donate, even if it's just one, email me directly at DK@DKPittsburghSports.com, and Dali will do the processing.
Thanks to everyone so far!
NO ANNIVERSARY FUSS
We're a week away from our ninth anniversary -- I know, right? -- but we're deliberately not making any big deal out of it or anything. It falls on a Sunday, when the HQ/shop will be closed, and we'll just keep it to ourselves with maybe a nice dinner at home with the full family.
The reason: We'll make an obnoxiously massive deal out of the 10th anniversary next year. Kinda how we did for the fifth anniversary, only much bigger. Stay tuned.
YOU SET THE PRICE! ALWAYS!
Can't repeat this often enough: If your subscription's expiring and you don't think you'll be able to afford it ... you can, and I'll make sure of it personally. We'll work it out. No questions asked. Promise.
Just email me: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com
WEEKLY FUN APP HINT
This one isn't really fun, but hey, I've found the worst possible way to eliminate all the lousy stuff that'd been plaguing our app from the ad standpoint: Turn off all ads.
We did that yesterday. It sucks from a revenue standpoint, but I just didn't feel it was fair to ask our users to deal with a blank video player and, now, a hostile popup takeover. We hope to be on a new ad server very soon.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers for the past week were 438,560, with 23,807 different users over those seven days. Our most-read original piece was my Point Park University Friday Insider led by the Steelers' stadium plan, at 8,917. No team percentage breakdowns again this week under the new Google Analytics 4 system that I still haven't deciphered.
• On the multimedia front, our podcast downloads for the past week were 107,087, and our YouTube video views for the past week were 64,695. Both of these figures are well down from the norm, as Ramon took a week's vacation. (But he's back!)
• Our company social media accounts are at 50,062 followers on Twitter, 39,358 on Facebook, 23,266 on YouTube, 14,875 on Instagram ... and already 1,911 after just a couple days on the new Threads app!
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• We're often asked about our HQ/shop merch being available online, and yes, it's right here.
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com