In the spirit of our big announcement a month ago that our content -- though not the commenting platform and other perks -- would be going free ... we're seeing (very) early returns resembling what we'd hoped to see.
Meaning that outsiders are poking through.
In the past 28 days, we've had 3,370,557 page views, an increase of 40.3% over the previous 28 days' 2,403,302. It's an unprecedented circumstance, so we couldn't have known what to expect, but that at least seems pretty good. I think. I'm not sure. Because the other number that leaps out here is that our Penguins and Pirates views stayed almost completely level between those two periods, while our Steelers numbers erupted by an additional 79% ... almost doubling! So it's possible, I'd say, that excitement about the football team's perfect preseason is more responsible for the rise than anything else.
Whatever. We'll see.
What matters most is that all numbers -- and I mean all of them -- are trending upward, and that really was the primary goal, without worrying much about the how and why. Page views, unique users, programmatic ads, videos, podcasts, engagement, comments ... all have gone up, and more so with each passing week.
Now, ready for the only truly surprising figure so far?
We've had a total of 224 subscription cancellations. A fraction of a single percentage point of our overall base. And of those who've canceled, exactly 29 have asked for a refund. For real.
Now, I'm not big on touting cancellations as a positive, to say the least. But I'm also not comfortable sharing what kind of figures we'd feared on this front, and I'm not going to start now. Suffice it to say it was outright draconian compared to the current reality. And that's because, again, we couldn't have known what to expect.
Thank you. As always, this community's the very best thing about this venture.
PAYMENT PLATFORM ROLLING
I mentioned in this space a week ago that we're installing a new payment platform and, thanks to some hard work by Dali and everyone at BoomPress, that was mostly wrapped up yesterday.
Which means that, if you're one of the many who've been asking us why there wasn't any charge for August, we're finally set to fix that, a process that's still going on right now overnight. (She never stops.)
Appreciate everyone's patience.
PROGRESS ON FEEDS
We had more back-and-forth on the upgraded feeds, including testing, design work and so forth. I did much of that testing myself as it relates to functionality, and it's getting close.
The expectation remains that the upgraded feeds will be available before the Steelers' Sept. 10 kickoff. The upgraded comments ... we'll see.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL KICKOFF
The college football season opens today, including Pitt right here on the North Shore against something called Wofford, and I'm here to remind that we'll be all over all of it.
Corey Crisan will cover all of the Panthers' games, home and road, and Cory Giger will cover all of Penn State's games, home and road. No exceptions. Crisan's also involved in our Steelers coverage, but when there's a conflict, his priority will be Pitt. (I'm the only one guaranteed to be at every Steelers game.)
On top of that, there'll be updates in the Duquesne and Robert Morris feeds on how those football teams fared, though we obviously won't be staffing those. We've never even done this much before, and it'll be fun to see if there's feedback on either front.
MILITARY DRIVE: 313
The quietest week yet for our annual Military Drive, aimed at connecting 1,000 veterans of our Armed Forces to a one-year subscription, in that we sold 2 to raise the total to 313. (Thanks, Larry!) We're still in good shape toward the goal of getting it done by Veterans Day Nov. 11, but ... yeah, this can't be the pace.
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.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers for the past week were 805,802, with 31,877 different users over the most recent full seven-day span. Our most-read original piece -- all month, actually -- was my column from PNC Park about the Pirates' lack of four-year progress, at 17,687. The Steelers were tagged within 56.8% of our content, the Pirates 51.6%, the Penguins 41.5%, 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 148,417 and our YouTube video views for the past week were 157,279.
• Our company social media accounts are at 50,806 followers on X, 39,605 on Facebook, 24,246 on YouTube, 14,868 on Instagram ... and already 2,377 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