In my newspaper days, there was a running joke I'd come across a few times that'd go like this: Bill Gates buys the operation, walks onto the floor, surveys the scene, counts up 100 reporters, knows already that the Steelers account for 40% of all online traffic (not just sports), then asks which 40 reporters are covering the Steelers.
At which point four people raise their hands.
Making the punchline, of course, that the old-school types wouldn't be able to process the right way to turn the business.
I kept that in mind upon launching this venture, never let it go, and it helps keep the proper perspective to this day. Although we've got a surprisingly tight balance of all three teams here on the app/site -- divvying up the three main Feeds, the Steelers are 45 percent, the Penguins 33 percent, the Pirates 22 percent -- that's very different in multimedia, where, for example, we've got 31,000-plus YouTube subscribers to our Steelers channel, 4,000-plus each on Penguins and Pirates. That tells me, and powerfully so, that we should be much higher on Steelers here on the app/site than we are.
So, here comes our best shot.
Between bringing Chris Halicke home from Texas, then adding another veteran reporter in Greg Macafee, the three of us have already set what we hope is a high standard for the coverage we're expecting out of Latrobe, then into triple-staffing the preseason game last night, then doing every game all season with a minimum two reporters the whole way through, home and road.
What's that mean for the reader?
It's not really as much about quantity of content, though that obviously occurs. It's far more about quality. If I've got a reporter or two on the scene with me, I can invest all my energy into the column, Chris can invest all his into his popular Chalk Talk analysis, and Greg can be free to work the room and assist with news and other notes. To boot, we can conspire on both pregame and postgame multimedia without having those feel like some extra hassle.
It's a team effort, but we can all stay in our own lanes, if that makes any sense.
Here we go, as they say.
INSIDE THE WORKS
• Important: If you've got a really old Android device, which generally means five-plus years old, that's about to be a problem as it relates to our app. Google occasionally will mandate to developers that they update all software to a certain standard and, when that happens, older versions become obsolete. That hit a couple of our subscribers just yesterday. Literally nothing we can do about it on our end.
• With Dali, Dara and Marko all in Japan for another handful of days, I'm doing ... a lot. And that includes going it solo at the HQ/shop. Happy to have anyone stop to say hi.
• Can't wait for our custom commenting upgrade to be in place. That's expected before the football season.
• Our push to expand our local advertising profile's begun. Aiming high. Nothing cemented yet. Working on it.
• Everyone loving being ad-free? If you're not there yet, it's only for paying subscribers. If you aren't subscribed yet or if your subscription's expired: This is our subscribe page. From there, make sure you're logged in, tap on the link, and thumb down to the bottom for the SUBSCRIBE button to buy/renew at the monthly or annual level. We also offer discounts, as ever, for student subscriptions and senior subscriptions.
• Grateful that so many of you continue to leave us good reviews on outside platforms. For anyone who hasn't yet, feel free to add your own on our Google listing, our Apple or Spotify podcast channels, our YouTube channels for the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates and, last but not least, our own app, whether it's the Apple or Android version. And again, thank you!
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers for the past week were 844,197, with 38,805 unique users over the most recent full seven-day span, Aug. 2-8. Our most-read original piece was ... well, pretty much a dead head between my Friday Insider from Latrobe on Russell Wilson starting at 19,309, and my Grind from PNC Park on Derek Shelton's bad decisions at 19,170.
• On the multimedia front, our podcast downloads for the past week were 85,669, and our YouTube video views were 122,126.
• Our company social media accounts are at 55,662 followers on X, 41,084 on Facebook, 31,945 on YouTube, 15,218 on Instagram, 880 on TikTok ... and already 4,935 on the new Threads!
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Our HQ/shop merch is available online. The Downtown shop itself's open Tuesday-Saturday, 12-6 p.m.
• Anything you need, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Thanks for reading and, as ever, for your support of this venture.
