DK Pittsburgh Sports...lots of turnover in employees...

[wondermoose]

I'm really not into the direction of the site. There's more and more crap that I don't care about or want to be bothered with. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't want their writers time to be dedicated to audio and video. Just doesn't do it for me. I don't think we'll ever find out for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if Yohe just had enough doing all of the video/radio spots rather than focusing on the writing.

[Realist]

I'm really not into the direction of the site. There's more and more crap that I don't care about or want to be bothered with.

Oh come on? You don't like the "daily fun thing"? Or Sara Civian, fresh out of college, educating us with her anti-Trump rants and retweets?

[Durbano]

While I don’t respect the manner in which Josh left, Katie isn’t in his league when it comes to covering the Pens. Her work is as plain as her name. I hope DK follows through on his stated intent and covers most of the games.

I haven’t been tracking the turnover at DK but at this point it’s hard not to notice. Probably doesn’t help that they run introductory pieces hyping new hires, many if not most of whom don’t last.

I sampled The Athletic via their app (you get a handful of free articles per month). For me, it’s not worth the subscription price. I’d only be signing up for Pens coverage, and I still get enough of that from the PG, DK and the team site.

[Realist]

Adam Flango now gone...lasted 4 months...LOL.

[FLPensFan]

Adam Flango now gone...lasted 4 months...LOL.

Was there any announcement on this?

[FLPensFan]

I'm really not into the direction of the site. There's more and more crap that I don't care about or want to be bothered with. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't want their writers time to be dedicated to audio and video. Just doesn't do it for me. I don't think we'll ever find out for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if Yohe just had enough doing all of the video/radio spots rather than focusing on the writing.

Used to be a big fan of DK's viewpoint as a columnist at the PG and Trib. Main reason why I subscribed. Sadly, I can't stand the guy anymore. He has let his site go to his head....or maybe he has always been like this and it is just that much more noticeable.

I signed up to his site for hockey. That's 80% of why I go there. I used to read EVERY hockey article there. Now, half of them don't even grab my attention. I liked the Friday Insider and Tuesday Takes, because they'd have several 2-3 sentence tidbits on the Penguins. Not enough to write a full blown article, but just behind the scenes stuff, off the record stuff, etc. Now they've gotten lazy and created Daliy Grind, which tends to be 1 team specific, and usually just ends up being an extra article.....none of the "you aren't getting this info anywhere else" type of stuff.

I've called DK out multiple times via twitter DMs that I am surprised he hasn't blocked me yet. Nothing worse than just deciding you are too busy so you aren't going to do Segment X today. If Friday Insider is 30% of the reason why I subscribe,

In terms of main sports (Penguins, Steelers, Pirates) staff turnover, I would venture a guess in that it has something to do with having to cover teams they outside their realm. Aside from Kaboly and Audrey Snyder, I think all the other "beat writers" get forced to write for multiple sports. Gajtka signed on to do baseball. Doing hockey right now. Yohe had done baseball. I think Mackey did all 3 at one point. As a writer, you aren't supposed to be a fan of the teams, and it shouldn't matter what sport you are covering, but on the flip side, jumping from sport to sport on a week to week basis isn't very desirable, one would imagine.

I'd say at this point, I'm 80% certain to not renew when my subscription is up in August.

[wondermoose]

Now Mark Kaboly. Whew. The ship is taking on water fast.

[ShipHockey7]

Yeah, thats a big one for DK to lose - I'm not even a Steelers fan but I appreciated his work. Will be interesting to see who the replacement is.

[Realist]

As big as DK's ego is, he will replace him with another recent college grad then "up" his pricing for coverage at the same time. #DKsWallet

[Pitts]

Dale Lolley has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since 1993 for the Washington Observer-Reporter, one of the longest tenures of any NFL beat writer, and he’s done so with distinction.

We are happy to have him join our team!

DK can't be that bad to work for right? The Athletic is just pilfering all the best talent because they have money behind them.

[Pitts]

I'd say at this point, I'm 80% certain to not renew when my subscription is up in August.

I'm very close to this as well. Really only ever read the hockey items and some of the Steelers. I'm loving my Athletic subscription tho!

[FLPensFan]

I'd say at this point, I'm 80% certain to not renew when my subscription is up in August.

I'm very close to this as well. Really only ever read the hockey items and some of the Steelers. I'm loving my Athletic subscription tho!

This is what I wanted to hear. I'm now thinking of doing it sooner rather than later. As much as I'm just looking for hockey coverage, I could care less about the other stuff from the Athletic, but....I still get the other stuff for free.....plus Penguins AND the entire NHL.

As far as DK's site, it is now official that everyone there is a 2nd rate writer. I'm not saying any of them are bad writers, in fact, some of them are good, but, Yohe and Kaboly were trumpted by DK as his "Day 1 wishlist writers." I understand that DK can't complete with the money of the Athletic, but the content quality has taken a major hit, and I don't like the lack of normalcy with some of his more specialized pieces (Friday Insider and Daily Grind). And as I used to like the writing of DK, his ego was never this noticeable when at the PG or Trib. Being his own boss, the guy has really started to turn me off, and trying to stuff his opinion and his way as "the way."

Thanks for the feedback, Pitts.

[FLPensFan]

Now Mark Kaboly. Whew. The ship is taking on water fast.

If Kaboly jumped ship, wouldn't the ship.......nevermind.

I only casually read the Steelers stuff, but DK may need to get out of the sports biz quick, and just focus on selling the platform he built to host the stuff.

At least he has a sense of humor about it, posting on Twitter a picture of his wife, with a box packed, saying "Oh No, not her too!!"

[Pitts]

I saw that. I think he has always had decent sense of humor about things.

[DelPen]

So DK starts a Sports site that is independent of all the big media and does it better hiring quality writers. Big media continue to lose money, not really from their sports coverage but from other areas in their broad corporate reach, so issue mass layoffs. Someone sees all the talent that are now free agents and decides to create a Coast to Coast sports service independent from big media companies and then decide to hire away the best writers they can find. Is that pretty much it? Kind of got beat by his own game?

[jpvs2k6]

So DK starts a Sports site that is independent of all the big media and does it better hiring quality writers. Big media continue to lose money, not really from their sports coverage but from other areas in their broad corporate reach, so issue mass layoffs. Someone sees all the talent that are now free agents and decides to create a Coast to Coast sports service independent from big media companies and then decide to hire away the best writers they can find. Is that pretty much it? Kind of got beat by his own game?

Pretty much. Seems like The Athletic had a lot more money to start -- whether it was borrowed or not -- and they're spending it to hire the best writers they can find.

[jpvs2k6]

And as I used to like the writing of DK, his ego was never this noticeable when at the PG or Trib. Being his own boss, the guy has really started to turn me off, and trying to stuff his opinion and his way as "the way."

I really feel the same way here. I enjoyed reading nearly everything he put out in the past, and was excited about his venture into doing business for himself.

Sadly, he's really ramped up being a d-bag in pushing his site. Maybe he feels he has to act that since he is doing all the promoting himself. Spending all your time self-promoting can't be fun. It doesn't mean you have to turn into such a jerk, though.

[Realist]

Sadly, he's really ramped up being a d-bag in pushing his site. Maybe he feels he has to act that since he is doing all the promoting himself. Spending all your time self-promoting can't be fun. It doesn't mean you have to turn into such a jerk, though.

I don't mind the self-promoting even. But, when he said many Tomlin critics are racist, trolls his own customers outside of his own site, and trys to settle personal fighting through twitter (i.e. fighting with Rob B from the Trib or Rob Rossi), he doesn't realize how bad he looks.

The article he had this week was a joke: He basically said that the Steelers are really likeable guys, after he lists all the bad stuff that they have done publically. Basically, the premise of the article is that the Steelers are really great guys, and he goes on to make excuses for each guy listed.

I mean: OJ Simpson I'm sure was a nice guy, but I don't want to hang out with a guy who murdered his wife....DK doesn't get that stuff like that makes him unlikeable?

[wondermoose]

Anyone who defends the character of Ben Roethlisberger has questionable character his or herself. You can say he's nice to the media and gives a lot of money to charity, but then again there were the times he raped a few girls and paid millions in out-of-court settlements.

[Brad McEachern]

Anyone who defends the character of Ben Roethlisberger has questionable character his or herself. You can say he's nice to the media and gives a lot of money to charity, but then again there were the times he raped a few girls and paid millions in out-of-court settlements.

1. That's your opinion, not fact
2. Who he rape? There was proven evidence the Lake Tahoe incident was a hoax, a woman blackmailing him and there were no charges brought upon at all in Millegeville and yeah that's a bit important when presenting the argument you a rotten person. You basically wan ppl to dislike the guy because for whatever reason you don't like the guy personally.

Sorry I'm not going to bash a guy when there's no evidence to back your argument.

But if you going to go the route your going on (thinking a athlete has questionable bad acts based on speculation) then we all need to dislike Mario ASAP and think he's a rotten person as well because if you believed the rumors he allegedly raped a girl in a hotel room with Dan Quinn watching him on.

You prepared to do that? Ah doubt it for the obvious reason.

[wondermoose]

Anyone who defends the character of Ben Roethlisberger has questionable character his or herself. You can say he's nice to the media and gives a lot of money to charity, but then again there were the times he raped a few girls and paid millions in out-of-court settlements.

1. That's your opinion, not fact
2. Who he rape? There was proven evidence the Lake Tahoe incident was a hoax, a woman blackmailing him and there were no charges brought upon at all in Millegeville and yeah that's a bit important when presenting the argument you a rotten person. You basically wan ppl to dislike the guy because for whatever reason you don't like the guy personally.

Sorry I'm not going to bash a guy when there's no evidence to back your argument.

But if you going to go the route your going on (thinking a athlete has questionable bad acts based on speculation) then we all need to dislike Mario ASAP and think he's a rotten person as well because if you believed the rumors he allegedly raped a girl in a hotel room with Dan Quinn watching him on.

You prepared to do that? Ah doubt it for the obvious reason.

Yikes.

[FLPensFan]

So DK starts a Sports site that is independent of all the big media and does it better hiring quality writers. Big media continue to lose money, not really from their sports coverage but from other areas in their broad corporate reach, so issue mass layoffs. Someone sees all the talent that are now free agents and decides to create a Coast to Coast sports service independent from big media companies and then decide to hire away the best writers they can find. Is that pretty much it? Kind of got beat by his own game?

Pretty much, although, he churned over quite a few people before the Athletic came along. Jason Mackey, Seth Rorabaugh, Alan Saunders, Dustin Dopriak......I'm sure there are AT LEAST 2-3 others, but no question people going elsewhere is not all on the Athletic. That was just the icing on the cake, them stealing some of the higher end talent that DK swore were his day 1 targets (Yohe and Kaboly).

In general, I like most of the Pittsburgh based media that covers the Penguins (Ron Cook and Rob Rossi my exceptions), at least, ones that have been around awhile. Molinari, Yohe, Mackey, Rorabaugh.....I like the coverage those guys do. Nothing against Katie Brown, but I just don't see the same level of passion about covering the team. And Sara Civian has been moved around to so many different site topics, I expect her to be the next one to leave.

[PensOnDVD]

Lolley over Kaboly is a major upgrade. Kaboly adds nothing really, he just states the obvious and his podcasts were awful.

He gets some one on one time with Todd Haley and Ben at camp every year. That was basically is only "insider" stuff. But he's basically useless.

The athletic hachet jobs Mario, I don't think that's going to help them long term here. And their money apparently is already close to drying up.

[PensOnDVD]

Anyone who defends the character of Ben Roethlisberger has questionable character his or herself. You can say he's nice to the media and gives a lot of money to charity, but then again there were the times he raped a few girls and paid millions in out-of-court settlements.

1. That's your opinion, not fact
2. Who he rape? There was proven evidence the Lake Tahoe incident was a hoax, a woman blackmailing him and there were no charges brought upon at all in Millegeville and yeah that's a bit important when presenting the argument you a rotten person. You basically wan ppl to dislike the guy because for whatever reason you don't like the guy personally.

Sorry I'm not going to bash a guy when there's no evidence to back your argument.

But if you going to go the route your going on (thinking a athlete has questionable bad acts based on speculation) then we all need to dislike Mario ASAP and think he's a rotten person as well because if you believed the rumors he allegedly raped a girl in a hotel room with Dan Quinn watching him on.

You prepared to do that? Ah doubt it for the obvious reason.

Quinn was charged with rape. The story was Quinn was raping a women, and her friend who wanted to help, was forbidden to, and held in place so she couldn't, by Mario.

That is speculation, FACT, is that Mario Lemieux, the NHL's best player, was in a hotel room bed with a 19 year old, while his long time girlfriend/fiance Nathalie was back in Pittsburgh pregnant with their first child.

There is NO evidence, not one piece, that supports the theory that Ben raped anyone. Much less that nutjob in Nevada.

What's comical are many of the same "Steeler fans" who bash Ben, worship the ground Yinzer Charlie Batch walks on.

[Durbano]

Sara Civian no longer with DK's operation.