Saturday site stuff: More and more coverage

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …

• The goal from the site’s inception has been to grow, not just in subscriptions but also in scope. And that all along was going to involve adding writers. In all honesty, I’d never imagined it would be this soon, but we’re fortunate to already have a firm enough foundation to proceed right now.

So here we are.

As was already announced, we’ve added John Perrotto on the Pirates and Matt Gajtka on Riverhounds. The former sent us daily insight from Bradenton the past couple of weeks, and the latter will make his first file late tonight from Highmark Stadium.

And now, we’re introducing two more freelance writers: Daniel Scifo on Steelers and Brian Metzer on Penguins. The former is a reporter and editor at the Latrobe Bulletin, as well as a veteran of covering the Steelers at Saint Vincent College and beyond. The latter is a host on Penguins Live online radio in addition to reporting for NHL.com and the Beaver County Times.

A decision on colleges won’t come for another several months, but we’re delighted to have this group offering you extra coverage here on our site.

And that’s a point I’d like to stress here: It’s extra coverage.

Anyone who has followed me for any amount of time knows I’m not exactly the type to step on the brakes. I’ll continue to write as much content as ever, and with the same distribution as I’ve shown for all of our city’s professional teams. What you’ll get from our other writers will come, almost invariably, in the ‘On the scene’ format that allows them to get you information quickly yet colorfully. I’ll do all the columns, Friday Insider, Tuesday 12 Qs and almost all News/views entries.

In other words, as far as my input goes, nothing will change.

You’re just getting more now. And soon, more and more.

Photo-illustration — DKonPittsburghSports.com

• I’m headed to Ohio early this morning, first to Columbus to cover the Penguins-Blue Jackets matinee today, then on down I-71 to Cincinnati for the Pirates’ opener Monday. I’m leaving that guy up there in the photoshop far behind.

• If you are an active-duty military member or a veteran — or if you know one — let it be known that subscriptions to this site are free. Simply click the big button below:

• March wound up our biggest traffic month ever, with 445,815 page views. We’ve had a busier 30-day period, but not an actual month. This breaks down to 320,126 views on the main and mobile sites, 125,689 on the app. Being open here, I’m not crazy about how that last number is calculated, as our app counts what are called ‘visits’ rather than page views. There are a lot of apples-and-oranges comparisons with this stuff, and I’m hoping to get this one clarified in the near future.

Regardless, it’s the most eyeballs the content has ever gotten. Which is to be expected, to an extent, in the context of rising subscriptions. But it’s still nice.

• In the abstract, I find myself thinking more and more from the perspective of the app when it comes to coverage, and it’s a big reason writers have been added. We don’t pretend to be complete with news, but we do welcome the opportunity to provide you more reasons to glance down at the app.

• Our online merchandise shop now has mugs, mousepads and flash drives, all for $10 or less.

• If you haven’t downloaded yet, here is our app for iPhone/iPad. And the app for Android. Overall app count: 5,020 active downloads from Apple, 2,051 from Android..

• We’re selling baseball gift subscriptions aimed at offering Pirates fans a full year of coverage from spring training onward. Click the box below for all gift options:

• As of this writing at 11 p.m. Friday, we’re at 9,523 paid subscriptions. We’re a little more than eight months old, and our stated goal for the first full year was 10,000.

• If you can’t figure out something 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 [email protected]

• Thank you, as always, for reading and for your support.