A week ago, right here in the previous Site Stuff, I hinted that we were working toward adding a contributor to our staff who'd 'bowl you over.'
Those were my exact words. I do try to choose words carefully.
And to the inestimable credit of our readers, these were among the comments that ran below that article:
And on that note, please join us in welcoming Ramon Foster!
For real!
The Steelers' starting left guard for 11 years, recently retired from playing, will be writing a weekly column for us. It'll be about football, as one would expect, and it'll be from the extraordinary perspective of this individual who's experienced it all as a player, as a teammate, as a union rep, as a giant in our community.
Ramon and I spoke at length yesterday, and suffice it to say he won't need much help. He chose to do this in writing form -- though he'll pop onto the occasional Morning Java -- and he's already got one, two, three concepts lined up, all of them terrific. The first one's pegged for next Wednesday, then each Tuesday after that.
It's only the beginning of what we've got coming. Just wait.
THE APP COMETH
The beta version of our new app is ready to be released to our two dozen volunteer testers by this weekend. If you're one of those, you'll first need to download another app called TestFlight to receive it. We'll email you directly to keep you informed of the process.
It was a very, very good week in app-land. Tons more hours but also tons of progress. It looks and feels more real than ever and, though there's work ahead, we've got plenty enough for our testers to start their work. Once they're done, and the corresponding bugs are squashed, we'll be ready for the real release.
Another sneak peek takes us to our Penguins schedule page, one where you can track when and where they play but also, retroactively, find the corresponding boxscore, our coverage and more:
MILITARY DRIVE TO 1,500: 670
We sold 17 military subscriptions in the past week, including three bulk purchases of five each, and we're grateful for them all. In the three months since Josh DeNinno, our friend at Moon Golf Club, challenged our subscribers to step up with 1,500 veteran subscription purchases in 2020, commemorating his course's 15th anniversary, our count is at 670.
They're $19.99 for the annual and can be bought individually right here. Or, if you’re interested in making a bulk purchase, please email me directly: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com -- DK
JOIN OUR SOCIAL ARMY!
We need your help: As the launch approaches, we're working to build up our social-media muscle to maximize promotion. And, if you aren't aware of the inner workings of Twitter and especially Facebook, you can't imagine how big an impact you can make with the simple tap of a button.
To date, we've gotten 53 readers connected to either Twitter or Facebook, so thank you!
How to help is simple: Email Hunter Homistek at Hunter@DKPittsburghSports.com, and tell him you'd like to be added to his Lunatic social army!
BACK TO BUSINESS
• New paid subscribers for 2020 -- not including gifts, military, returning/renewing subscribers -- are at 156. We had eight new paid subscribers over the past week.
• Our daily page views, averaged out over the past week, were 43,108. The goal with this figure is to average 100,000, but that's obviously not going to be remotely realistic for a while.
• Our most-hit original article of the past week was Dale Lolley's analysis of the Steelers' free-agent pursuits, at 18,016. The Steelers accounted for 99,023 page views, the Penguins 51,864, the Pirates 38,797 and Pitt 2,896.
• We're at 36,231 (+33) followers on Twitter, we're at 32,336 (+22) page likes on Facebook, we're at 14,180 (+38) followers on Instagram. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
• Get our free newsletter with a simple signup! We send out a new one Monday-Friday at 7 a.m.
