Dropping all Pitt coverage immediately. Any options you all prefer? How's the coverage on the subscription access of pittsburghsportsnow?
DK Sports
- Thread starter runshadyrun
- Start date
College coverage consumed 18% of the budget while only driving 2% of its subscriptions according to the site.
I liked it better when they hired those chicks and they exposed DK for wanting them to do 3somes with his wife. That folks, was worth the subscription.
DK never replaced Audrey once she split for The Athletic. Now he's dumping Pitt. Seems pretty clear to me that his site is in a downward spiral.
If anybody decides to join up, I'd suggest buying a monthly subscription unless you like living dangerously.
If anybody decides to join up, I'd suggest buying a monthly subscription unless you like living dangerously.
As I stated, he effectively dumped PSU months ago. Even the Pitt coverage was forlorn. It's highly possible that nobody read the college coverage much because they did a shitty job of it.
The Athletic is eating their lunch.
Are you sure about that? I may have read two Pitt articles in the Athletic in the year I have subscribed. Seeing how the Athletic is national I would expect it to be doing much better. For Pittsburgh only fans though I highly doubt it is.
I am yet to read a piece of sports writing that really justifies me paying money for a subscription...
It’s nice for non-locals
I subscribed when I was in North Carolina.
Their pens coverage is by far their best work
Too bad, but it makes sense for his business model. It's also why you don't hear a lot of college talk on sports radio.
DK is an interesting site. He is one of the best in Pittsburgh and also has maybe the biggest ego as well, which seemed to hurt how he ran his site. Too much turnover and not enough named talent. I was impressed he landed Lolley, which was a pretty significant upgrade in Steelers coverage over what he previously had. As far as The Athletic goes, isn't it basically staffed with former Tribune Review writers?
DK is an interesting site. He is one of the best in Pittsburgh and also has maybe the biggest ego as well, which seemed to hurt how he ran his site. Too much turnover and not enough named talent. I was impressed he landed Lolley, which was a pretty significant upgrade in Steelers coverage over what he previously had. As far as The Athletic goes, isn't it basically staffed with former Tribune Review writers?
But he's keeping the Riverhounds coverage. Go figure. I guess that is "Pro". Same with Nailers and WBS Pens coverage.
I mean it is his business, and certainly the numbers are there to support it, and truthfully there are other outlets and better outlets (like this one) for college sports, but there is nothing more that highlights the local attitude towards college sports locally than this decision.
Unfortunately with the continuing demise of newspapers, this is going to change if you are a sports fan. These pay sites are going to become more and more popular.
I'd really like to ask how much of that budget was a result of WVU and PSU coverage vs Pitt??
His office is at Highmark Stadium so I don't think that coverage was going away.
I was thinking he could just cover Pitt basketball and football and reduce the 18% but then you have the 2% part of the equation.
Aha, yep....forgot about that. That makes sense. I guess. But let's face it, DK is a fan, most yinzers aren't. More are Pitt/PSU/WVU fans than Riverhounds fans.
I think the RH fan base sits at about 1000 people. Not even the Pittsburgh soccer community pay attention to the Hounds. And the families who are part of their youth program are pressured into attending the pro games. His rent is probably dependent on the coverage. Odd that he is even choosing to ignore Pitt hoops. He should come clean.
I loved his writing at the PG and the trib. Bought a lifetime membership because I hoped he would provide coverage once the local papers went to subscription. At the time when he had seth rorhbaugh and josh yohe and Jason Mackey I thought their pens coverage was outstanding. I regret it once his horrible behavior was exposed. He seems like an A+ dickwad.
As far as pitt goes, I talked to him early on about the difficulties of covering pitt from the ground up. I told him the only way I could see it work was for him to steal chris peak. I have no idea if he ever contacted peak and I am glad peak never left for that gig but peak has already built up the following through rivals. Most people here already pay for pitt coverage so why would others choose DK. Unfortunately I did.
As far as pitt goes, I talked to him early on about the difficulties of covering pitt from the ground up. I told him the only way I could see it work was for him to steal chris peak. I have no idea if he ever contacted peak and I am glad peak never left for that gig but peak has already built up the following through rivals. Most people here already pay for pitt coverage so why would others choose DK. Unfortunately I did.
This is all you need to know about that website as an ongoing business venture:
"As I type this, we have zero idea how many actual subscribers we have. And we might never."
Think about that for a second. The lifeblood of any of these types of sites is money from subscribers and selling your subscriber base to advertisers. And they have no idea how many actual subscribers they have, and they have apparently given up every being able to figure it out.
You simply don't see incompetence like that very often, and when you do the incompetent very rarely own up to it like that.
It really is a stunning admission, isn't it?
Imagine going to a potential investor. Isn't the very first question that they are going to ask you is something about how many subscribers you have? How many are active, paying subscribers, how many former subscribers are there and why did they drop their subscriptions, what are you doing to retain subscribers, what are you doing to bring back former subscribers who are no longer active. Those are all some of the most important questions for a site like that. And they have no idea.
He got close to 40k (though that number is questionable with the evidently haphazard way it was being tracked), then hit a wall with subscribers, pretty much a decline down to (again, supposedly) ~37k.
I read his “site stuff” and saw he’s using some new metric based on app users I think.
I’ll admit that he can pen some interesting columns (most recently a free one about the Steelers) that really make a lot of us fired up fans nod our heads in agreement and want to discuss further. But I just can’t get into paying for that kind of thing, even as an out of towner. I’m fine following select people on Twitter, BSing on message boards and sometimes reading free articles here and there.
I read his “site stuff” and saw he’s using some new metric based on app users I think.
I’ll admit that he can pen some interesting columns (most recently a free one about the Steelers) that really make a lot of us fired up fans nod our heads in agreement and want to discuss further. But I just can’t get into paying for that kind of thing, even as an out of towner. I’m fine following select people on Twitter, BSing on message boards and sometimes reading free articles here and there.
Like someone said above, I joined when he has Mackey, Yohe and Rohrbaugh covering the Pens, and also DK's takes on the Pirates and Nutting are great. But their gone and I soon will be.
I wouldn’t give that scumbag a dime of my money. I don’t even care about the tawdry stuff. It’s pretty clear he’s treated people like crap. He’s a grade a jerk.
And evidently he’s a dope too. It really is incredible that in today’s world he doesn’t know his subscriber number. Everything is numbers. Sounds like a s-show.
And evidently he’s a dope too. It really is incredible that in today’s world he doesn’t know his subscriber number. Everything is numbers. Sounds like a s-show.
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I’m pretty sure there’s some sort of investment in his site from hounds ownership.
Again, the drama with the chicks, the accusations, the firings and turnovers, it made the site must follow. Just for the drama. Now that this is over....not so much.
Bring back Sara Civian....from the neck down....and don't have her write about hockey.
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