Daily February 23

Call it the post-Trump slump or the bubble bursting on subscription mania: News publishers are starting to see and feel the decline of traffic and the subsequent slowdown of subscription sign-ups as of late. But as traffic diverts from breaking news coverage, other non-news verticals are seeing an uptick in interest from readers who are now willing to dedicate more time to hobbies and special interests. Read more below.

• Cooking, lifestyle and health and wellness are just a few of the categories that news publishers are seeing readers flock to in 2022.
• This week’s Digiday+ Future of TV Briefing looks at what TV and streaming companies’ latest earnings reports indicate about the state of the streaming business.
• Despite the relatively diminutive size of the competitive fighting game scene, some experts believe that the FGC is a better long-term investment for esports organizations than today’s more prominent, but corporate, esports leagues.
• As CPMs continue to rise and targeting weakens across the digital advertising landscape, DTC company Ritual looks to expand its media mix.
• Now that subscriptions are one-fifth of The Daily Beast’s total revenue, the team feels comfortable with not having the point of conversion as the ultimate goal.