Sampling of credentials from the past year. — DALI KOVACEVIC
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …
• Easily the most common questions I’ve heard since starting the site have related to credentials, whether or not I’d get credentialed to cover our local teams or their governing leagues. And I’ve handled those by simply pointing out the impeccable professionalism of all six of our major entities in Pittsburgh city limits — Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, Pitt, Duquesne, Riverhounds — and their appreciation of a truly unique situation.
There never was an issue with any of them, not even a tiny one.
But you should know that there’s more to it.
To wit: I’m an active member of the Pro Football Writers Association, the Pro Hockey Writers Association and the Baseball Writers Association of America. That affords not only access to every big-league stadium and arena on the continent, as well as major events such as All-Star Games and the like, but it also — and far more importantly — affords protection against having a credential wrongly removed. The latter happens almost never, but the mere presence of the shield provides journalists with insurance that they’re free to report on their beats. It’s no small thing.
Also, you play a very large role in this. For real. With every new subscriber and sponsor, our site grows more and more, to the point it can already be evaluated on its own merits as an independent media outlet, as opposed to just my pet project out of the basement. We’re at 8,000-plus paid subscriptions in less than seven months. That’s a very real, very respectable number, I dare say, for any local media outlet.
I’m so grateful for all of the above. It’s never taken for granted, and I hope to prove to all concerned that a journalist can continue to conduct professional business as an independent.
• We began selling baseball gift subscriptions this week, meaning packages aimed at offering Pirates fans a full year of coverage right from the moment pitchers and catchers report to Bradenton. A custom baseball-style card will be sent to all gift recipients, and we’ll be sure, as with all subscribers, that they get all the help they need using the site and the app.
Click the big box below for all our gift subscription options:
• As part of our continuing plan for further growth, we’ll soon be migrating this site to a much, much more powerful — and independent — server. Some upgrades aren’t noticeable to the user. This one will be. The site will load and move much more quickly for you, including commenting, videos, the whole deal. And it’s being built to last, meaning it will withstand traffic much higher than what we get now.
I’ll let you know when it takes place.
• The app count: 4,024 active downloads from Apple for iPhone/iPad platforms, 1,668 from Google for Android platforms. If you haven’t updated yours to the 1.1 version, please do so.
• Our apps now account for 18.2 percent of our total reader traffic. This is the first time we’ve gotten this figure, and it makes me happy. Actually, I’d love to see the figure go even higher. I can promise you that every single piece of content we produce is being done at least partially with the app in mind. The mobile user is of paramount importance to us.
• If you can’t figure something out related to our site or app, please check our Support and App Support pages. About 99 percent of the questions we get can be answered right there. But if your issue isn’t there, email us at [email protected]
• As of this writing at 11 p.m. Friday, we’re at 8,052 subscriptions. We’re 6 1/2 months old, and our stated goal for the first full year was 10,000.
• I’m flying down to Bradenton on Wednesday morning for the first of two weeklong trips to Pirates spring training. The coverage of the baseball team will be serious.
Part of the thought process in accompanying the Penguins out to Western Canada was that I wanted to make sure I put in a good, hard week of pucks before switching focus to baseball for about the same amount of time.
• Thank you so much for reading and for your support.
February 14, 2015
Saturday site stuff: Let’s talk credentials
by Dejan Kovacevic • Site stuff • Saturday site stuff
Sampling of credentials from the past year. — DALI KOVACEVIC
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …
• Easily the most common questions I’ve heard since starting the site have related to credentials, whether or not I’d get credentialed to cover our local teams or their governing leagues. And I’ve handled those by simply pointing out the impeccable professionalism of all six of our major entities in Pittsburgh city limits — Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, Pitt, Duquesne, Riverhounds — and their appreciation of a truly unique situation.
There never was an issue with any of them, not even a tiny one.
But you should know that there’s more to it.
To wit: I’m an active member of the Pro Football Writers Association, the Pro Hockey Writers Association and the Baseball Writers Association of America. That affords not only access to every big-league stadium and arena on the continent, as well as major events such as All-Star Games and the like, but it also — and far more importantly — affords protection against having a credential wrongly removed. The latter happens almost never, but the mere presence of the shield provides journalists with insurance that they’re free to report on their beats. It’s no small thing.
Also, you play a very large role in this. For real. With every new subscriber and sponsor, our site grows more and more, to the point it can already be evaluated on its own merits as an independent media outlet, as opposed to just my pet project out of the basement. We’re at 8,000-plus paid subscriptions in less than seven months. That’s a very real, very respectable number, I dare say, for any local media outlet.
I’m so grateful for all of the above. It’s never taken for granted, and I hope to prove to all concerned that a journalist can continue to conduct professional business as an independent.
• We began selling baseball gift subscriptions this week, meaning packages aimed at offering Pirates fans a full year of coverage right from the moment pitchers and catchers report to Bradenton. A custom baseball-style card will be sent to all gift recipients, and we’ll be sure, as with all subscribers, that they get all the help they need using the site and the app.
Click the big box below for all our gift subscription options:
• As part of our continuing plan for further growth, we’ll soon be migrating this site to a much, much more powerful — and independent — server. Some upgrades aren’t noticeable to the user. This one will be. The site will load and move much more quickly for you, including commenting, videos, the whole deal. And it’s being built to last, meaning it will withstand traffic much higher than what we get now.
I’ll let you know when it takes place.
• The app count: 4,024 active downloads from Apple for iPhone/iPad platforms, 1,668 from Google for Android platforms. If you haven’t updated yours to the 1.1 version, please do so.
• Our apps now account for 18.2 percent of our total reader traffic. This is the first time we’ve gotten this figure, and it makes me happy. Actually, I’d love to see the figure go even higher. I can promise you that every single piece of content we produce is being done at least partially with the app in mind. The mobile user is of paramount importance to us.
• If you can’t figure something out related to our site or app, please check our Support and App Support pages. About 99 percent of the questions we get can be answered right there. But if your issue isn’t there, email us at [email protected]
• As of this writing at 11 p.m. Friday, we’re at 8,052 subscriptions. We’re 6 1/2 months old, and our stated goal for the first full year was 10,000.
• I’m flying down to Bradenton on Wednesday morning for the first of two weeklong trips to Pirates spring training. The coverage of the baseball team will be serious.
Part of the thought process in accompanying the Penguins out to Western Canada was that I wanted to make sure I put in a good, hard week of pucks before switching focus to baseball for about the same amount of time.
• Thank you so much for reading and for your support.