It's been a borderline bizarre business week around here, beginning with the big announcement in this space last Saturday that our content -- though not the commenting platform and other perks -- will be going out for free, with an aim of both growing the brand and diversifying revenue streams.
But ... so far, so good. And I'll burrow through a bunch of the earliest results in bulleted form below:
• The number everyone would want to know first: We had 74 readers cancel their subscriptions and, within that, 26 ask for prorated refunds. And yeah, that's it. I'm not even comfortable sharing the number I had in my head for how that'd go -- and Dali's was way, way worse -- but then, I guess we should've learned a long time ago to trust this community. That's just an astoundingly low percentage of our overall readership. Amazing. Really.
• We were at 812,331 page views, down 12% from the previous week, and 44,119 unique users, also down 12% from the previous week. Sounds lousy, but it's immaterial in a couple ways: For one, other than a single tweet off my account, we've not pushed the free thing yet at all to the outside world. For another, the previous week had the Erik Karlsson trade that brought a stirring show of hockey fans. We fully expect to be break through 1 million weekly page views by month's end, thanks to the Steelers.
• We saw an 18% increase in ad revenue, but that's also immaterial in a couple ways: For one, our ad people in Vancouver are running our system through all kinds of goofy tests, and that's included shutting them all down for hours at a time. For another, once the new feeds/comments arrive, there'll be new ad placements. The goal is to have ad revenue double. Or better.
• The new feeds made massive progress over the past 48 hours, and they should be ready to put out to you within the week. One key change I initiated late in the week was to find a way to keep the feed as humanized as possible. Not just slapping links up there, but sharing with you, communicating with you, even about the higher-quality content we produce. For example, I'd let you know that my Drive to the Net this week -- one of my favorite pieces I've written on any topic in 2023 -- swung 180 degrees in mid-writing once I realized how terrific Rickard Rakell had been on the Penguins' power play. Forced a near-total rewrite. That kinda thing.
• Upgraded comments are next in line and not as close as feeds, but the goal remains to have both ready by the time the 49ers' buses come through our tunnel. Comments will involve more testing than we usually need and, as we've done in the past, we might ask a handful of you to help out, if you'd be so kind. (No need to volunteer today. I'll ask again.) We've got new emojis, new internal notifications for when someone's replied to your comment, pics, gifs, a lot more. It'll be fun.
• Here's the wrench so far, and it's largely unrelated but nonetheless a large pain in the posterior: We're in the midst of changing platforms. That's quite the undertaking. It's in the background, and you don't have to do anything, but we're currently unable to process any payments at all other than military gifts. Which is ... awkward and uncomfortable. So all we're asking is for a couple weeks to complete any and all tasks that'd involve a payment in this direction and, obviously, we do so humbly. It's a far better platform, and this had been planned out all along, but it's unfortunate timing.
As ever, I'll be in comments.
MILITARY DRIVE: 303
Our annual Military Drive, aimed at connecting 1,000 veterans of our Armed Forces to a one-year subscription, saw 19 subscriptions bought for the week leading into a new total of 303. We're still in good shape toward the goal of getting it done by Veterans Day Nov. 11.
Thank you!
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.
WEEKLY FUN APP HINT
One question that's often asked is what happens to the live game files once the next one's posted. I addressed this by adding an entry labeled GAMES onto the main blue horizontal bar across the home page. The options now say HOME, TODAY, GAMES and FEEDS.
Check them out. I update all of these daily myself.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers for the past week were 812,331, with 44,119 different users over the most recent full seven-day span. Our most-read original piece was my second column from Tampa, Fla., on the Steelers' preseason victory over the Buccaneers, at 18,175. The Steelers were tagged within 52.4% of our content, the Pirates 49.9%, the Penguins 40.5%, percentages that include overlap elements such as our home page or Friday Insider.
• On the multimedia front, our podcast downloads for the past week were 127,954 and our YouTube video views for the past week were 127,908.
• Our company social media accounts are at 50,519 followers on X, 39,509 on Facebook, 23,538 on YouTube, 14,872 on Instagram ... and already 2,288 after just a month 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, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
