UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Since this venture was launched, we've proudly offered free subscriptions to all active-duty military. Doing so has made for some of the most rewarding experiences we've had, hearing from those readers or even seeing the occasional 'Afghanistan' or 'Iraq' pop up on our Google Analytics in the middle of the night.
Since then, we've done more.
Check that: You've done more. Beginning two years ago, readers began covering the cost of all veterans, as well. Anyone who served in our military would now get a free subscription upon filling out one very simple form. No catch. Just our gratitude.
On that note, our great friend Josh DeNinno at Moon Golf Club wants to announce here that he's contributing 10 annual veteran gift subscriptions each month on behalf of the course. It’s a cause that’s personally important to him, and he’s hoping others will follow suit with what we're going to call our Veterans Challenge.
This is the third year of our partnership with MGC, and this is where Josh wants to challenge his fellow subscribers -- he's a reader, too -- to step up. That can be one veteran subscription, it can be 10 and, my goodness, we've had people go even beyond that.
The Veterans Challenge goal: 1,000 veterans will be connected to the site in 2019.
Josh has gotten us started by committing 10 a month, so he'll end up accounting for about 1/10 of this himself.
Who's next?
Here's where to get yours for a vet.
Every day for the rest of the year, we'll run the count, both here and in What's Brewing, to keep you up to date. We'll also share stories from vets all over when they reach out after receiving their gifts. And we'll do our own reaching out to make sure vets who are Pittsburgh sports fans are aware of our little world here.
Thanks to Josh and MGC for the idea and support!
LIFETIMES LEFT: 71
We've sold 29 Lifetime Lunatic subscriptions, so 71 remain toward our new cap of 100, combined with the original 500. There's no plan to sell more in the foreseeable future.
Here's how it works: The subscription to read this site/app, forever and ever, no matter what becomes of us, is $299. Buy it right here. If you're an existing subscriber and want to go Lifetime, do the same thing. Buy it right here. Then, email us at Help@DKPittsburghSports.com to let us know you did. We'll refund the remainder of your existing account.
FROM THE EDITOR
I'm in Washington this weekend pinch-hitting for John Perrotto on the Pirates. Covering baseball is not a one-man job, to be sure. And with the calm before the storm that is the NFL Draft in a couple of weeks, it was a perfect opportunity for me to take one for the team and give John a weekend off.
It's also not a one-man job on the minor leagues, either. And our minor league coverage will begin anew this week with Matt Welch and Jarrod Prugar again contributing stories on players at Indianapolis and Altoona, respectively.
Those will start on Monday and run for the next few months while the minor league seasons takes place. Mondays will feature a story on the Pirates' Class AAA franchise in Indy, while Tuesdays will feature a piece on the Class AA team in Altoona.
In the meantime, we'll continue to be one of the only outlets in the market that brings you Pirates coverage on a daily basis -- no matter where they happen to be. -- Dale Lolley in Washington
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
Want to become one of our business partners?
Our ability to reach people has never been as high as it is, and that extends far beyond our actual readership here on the site/app:
That's an average of 425,205 impressions per day on our company's official social media accounts, not including any of our various individual accounts. Now, add to that the average of 81,066 page views on the actual site/app, and it's roughly a half-million per day.
This is our brand new, updated 2019 media kit with all our essential data. If you're interested, contact me directly at Dali@DKPittsburghSports.com. We can communicate that way, by phone, face to face, or whatever works best for you. -- Dali Kovacevic in Pittsburgh
WE'RE LISTENING
• We keep working to speed up the site/app, so you'll see a slightly tighter presentation on the home page. Best to check What's Brewing each morning to see our latest offerings and updates. It's kind of like a town hall.
• In that spirit, in advance of both Stanley Cup playoff games this week, our friends at Aspinwall-based Build In Motion have ramped up the servers in anticipation of the very real crush of traffic that came each time. We're happy to say both went extremely well in that regard. Longtime readers will recall it wasn't always this way.
• No one needs to be logged-in to read Site Stuff or any of our free material. If you ever lose your login for the premium material, and you don't know how to reset it yourself, please reach out for a hand, OK? Email us: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
BACK TO BUSINESS
• New subscribers for 2019 are at 419. You can now track this figure daily at the bottom of the desktop and tablet versions of the site.
• Our daily active app users, averaged out over the past week, are at 12,726, broken down as 9,995 on Apple, 2,731 on Android. That total's minus-107 from the previous week. This figure will always fluctuate with the seasons and the news, so the goal is a steady, gradual increase, initially to 15,000, a number we've never achieved.
• Our daily page views, averaged out over the past month, are at 74,858. That's minus-80 over the same rolling figure from a week ago. The goal with this figure is also about a steady, gradual increase, first to 100,000, a number we've achieved only during the two Stanley Cup runs.
• Our most-hit article of the past week -- exempting live files -- was my column on the Pirates trashing Derek Dietrich at 9,141. The Penguins accounted for 152,982 of our page views, the Pirates 84,693, the Steelers 30,083.
• We're at 31,433 (+189) page likes on Facebook, we're at 31,251 (+169) followers on Twitter, we're at 10,502 (+80) followers on Instagram. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
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• We make mistakes. If you see one, email Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• This is our new 2019 media kit. If you're interested in connecting with our large, passionate following, email my wife at Dali@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email us: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
