Wellness, faith and weather: Cable news' lifestyle pivot
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Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Cable news giants are broadening their pitch to paying subscribers beyond politics, building new products around lifestyle, identity and community.
Why it matters: As the cable business shifts from bundled distribution to individual subscriptions, political affinity alone may not be enough to get consumers to pay.
- Bundling lifestyle offerings with political identities can deepen loyalty, but also risks furthering ideological entrenchment.
Driving the news: The rollout of MS Now's new membership program Wednesday will mark the latest subscription program offered by a major cable news network, each focused on selling a very different lifestyle.
- The new offering, which will cost $7.99 monthly or $79.99 annually, is built to offer MS Now's progressive audience a safe space to engage with MS Now's talent and process high-paced news cycles.
- The membership will lean heavily into community events and exclusive Q&As with on-air talent. It will include a partnership with the meditation app Calm to offer an exclusive collection of guided meditations created specifically for paid members.
Zoom out: Fox Nation, which debuted in 2018, is also focused on creating an exclusive space for its most passionate audiences, except its focus leans much more heavily into faith and family lifestyle programming.
- It launched a Fox Faith vertical in 2024 with exclusive programming that includes Bible study hosted by on-air talent Ainsley Earhardt and a series from anchor Shannon Bream that uses biblical stories to discuss motherhood and family relationships.
- CNN launched its first of several expected lifestyle apps, CNN Weather, in May. Fox launched a weather app in 2021.
- CNBC launched its Investing Club With Jim Cramer subscription for retail investors in 2021. The business news network has indicated it will expand coverage of areas beyond financial markets, like sports, wealth and women's leadership, with dedicated newsletters.
The bottom line: Newspapers have used lifestyle coverage of things like games and sports to attract subscribers for years. Facing pressure to go direct to consumer, cable networks are borrowing from that playbook.
