BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

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

• The home page redesign was completed this week, largely through the work of our site manager Jordan Saunders. We now have a featured post that stays atop the page until another important piece displaces it. We also have the rotating carousel of other recent featured posts for easy access. And down the left side, we’ve added a simple, functional index for all our contents and business stuff.

That’s only the beginning of the upgrading, though: On the app, we’ll soon make it easier for readers to access and enjoy our videos, podcasts and photos. On tablets, we’ll be right-sizing our content to work with whatever screen you use. And in comments, we’ll add likes, an editing function and special designations around the avatars of Lunatic subscribers.

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

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

• With the full-time addition of Josh Yohe, then the creative agreements reached with Benstonium and Dave DiCello, we’ve added quite a bit to the site in the past few days alone. But I’m here to tell you we’re only just beginning.

Put simply, we’ll be as big as you’ll allow us to be. One step at a time.

And let’s put that in writing, by lining up promises for each upcoming benchmark:

15,000 subscriptions: When we reach this figure, which is less than 4,000 away, we will cover every game of the big three teams, home and road. Currently, that commitment is there only for Steelers and all playoff games. We aim to be everywhere your favorite team is, and at this level, we’ll be able to ramp up the travel budget where needed.

20,000 subscriptions: An additional full-time staff reporter. Or, a division between a part-time staff reporter and part-time staff photographer. This remains to be seen.

There’s no plan beyond that for now, but those are the goals. The rest is up to how well we do toward earning the support needed to meet them.

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Sample front page of the new look to DKonPittsburghSports.com, expected to be activated tomorrow morning.

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

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

• With the addition of Josh Yohe, we’ll be unveiling a new look to the site tomorrow morning, in part to feature him prominently, in part to offer you some easier ways to navigate the place.

As you can see in the sample page above, there’s a slightly wider display to the site that allows for a new sidebar on the left. That’s where we’ll list all our staffers, our new buttons to the various team pages and provide for much easier access to gift subscriptions, military subscriptions and our merchandise shop.

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

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

• Now that the site achieved the first-year goal of 10,000 paid subscriptions — in 8 1/2 months, no less — the obvious next step would be to set the next goal. Except I haven’t got a clue.

Do we look ahead to 20,000? If so, by what date? And really, what’s the point?

In all honesty, the main goal that my wife Dali and I have right now, her on the business end and me on the writing-about-silly-games end, is to improve the site experience for existing customers. That’s actually been our primary focus for a good while now, much more so than finding new readers.

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

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

• Some subscription sites don’t take advertising, though most do. We’re obviously in the latter category, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never explained to the readership why that is.

The primary reason, of course, is revenue. Advertising accounts for 20 percent of our total budget, but it’s still essential for us at this stage. We’ve used that money — and only that money — toward travel, our own advertising and site upgrades, all of which reasonably could be considered extra operating expenses. And we’re fortunate to have been able to spend comfortably in all areas, as I’m confident you’ve noticed through the coverage, additional writers, the site itself, the app, all that.

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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.

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