Disney+ hits 50 million subscribers in less than 5 months

Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming service, Disney+, which debuted in November, has hit an enormous new milestone: The service has already amassed 50 million subscribers in just under five months.

The massive subscriber numbers represent nearly double the growth from February, when the company announced it had attracted 28.6 million subscribers, primarily in the U.S., during Disney+’s first three months on the market.

To help offset the pain of their suddenly jobless colleagues, a group of journalists has designed a website where donors can pledge money to support those in the industry affected by the coronavirus. Within 24 hours, journalists had pledged $50,000.

Microloans for Journalists went live on Monday, and by mid-day on Wednesday the site had verified $80,000 worth of pledges from current and past members of the journalism industry, including retired reporters and media professors.

As Americans continue to stay home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of them are passing the time by getting a glimpse of the outside world—that is, the one with outlandish big cat enthusiasts like Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin.

Tiger King: Murder, Madness and Mayhem, the true-crime documentary series that landed on Netflix in late March, has been viewed by 34.3 million Americans in its first 10 days on the service, according to figures from Nielsen’s SVOD Content Ratings.

Traffic to food websites like Meredith-owned AllRecipes.com, The Chernin Group’s Food52, Condé Nast’s Bon Appétit and Buzzfeed’s Tasty have all seen a bump in traffic in the last few weeks, especially in views of how-to videos and recipe demonstrations.

When the coronavirus began taking hold of the U.S. in March, it was was the busiest month for food websites since July 2019—a month that always gets a boost due to Fourth of July celebrations and summer gatherings, said John Cassillo, an analyst at media analysis group TV[R]EV.

William Lewis, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, will step down from the roles he’s held for nearly six years.

Lewis began in his position as interim CEO in 2014 after Lex Fenwick resigned from the News Corp-owned company. The news of Lewis’ departure was originally reported by the Financial Times.