Engagement with news content has plunged during the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2021 and in some cases has fallen below pre-pandemic levels, Axios’ Neal Rothschild and I write.

Why it matters: Americans have grown exhausted from the constant barrage of bad headlines that have replaced Trump-era crises, scandals and tweets.

The big picture: The level of news consumption in 2021 took a nosedive following historic highs in 2020. Despite a slew of major stories, readers have retrenched further in 2022.

• The war in Ukraine, a series of deadly mass shootings, the Jan. 6 hearings and the Supreme Court's revocation of abortion rights haven't been able to capture the same level of attention spurred by the onset of the pandemic and the 2020 election.

By the numbers: Engagement with news content across all platforms declined significantly in the first half of 2022.

• Cable viewership across the three major cable news networks — CNN, Fox News and MSNBC — is, on average, down 19% in prime time for the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2021. Those losses skew heavily toward CNN and MSNBC.
• News app sessions for the top 12 mainstream most-trafficked publishers dropped 16% in the first half of 2022, according to data from Apptopia.
• Website visits for the top five news websites in the U.S. by unique visits tracked by Similarweb dropped 18% in the first half of 2022.
• Engagement on social media with news articles cratered over the past six months, dropping 50% since the first half of last year, despite more articles published, according to data from NewsWhip.

Zoom out: In some cases, engagement has fallen below pre-pandemic levels — a news diet "whiplash."

What to watch: A country facing one calamity after another appears desperate for diversions.

• Sports and celebrity trials have often overshadowed hard news over the last two years.

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🏅Huge congrats to Neal, who is heading to Semafor as the startup's new head of audience. Follow him on his next adventure.

Two of the most-talked-about companies have finally added communication leads.

Twitter has hired a new head of communications, just in time for an Elon Musk battle royal. Rebecca Hahn, formerly the chief communications officer of Bird, joined the tech giant last week. More on Hahn here.

• Twitter has lacked a communications lead for the past few months, exacerbating stress from the fallout of its deal drama with Musk.

Semafor has also hired a head of communications, Axios has learned. Meera Pattni will join the startup as head of global communications, based out of New York. She previously served as SVP of communications at Condé Nast. Go deeper.

• Semafor has raised around $25 million from at least a dozen individuals and/or family offices, sources tell Axios. Only a few of those investors were named in a recent NYT report. Most haven't yet been disclosed.
• 👀 The funding is a SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) round, which allows the company to convert funding into equity when it eventually raises money at a specific valuation.

Disney has reached an agreement with The Trade Desk, a global ad tech company, that makes it possible for brands to target automated ads across Disney properties using data matched on the back end from Disney and The Trade Desk.

Why it matters: This is one of the largest media-business efforts yet to craft a new ad-targeting system as third-party tracking fades away, and it's likely to trigger a series of similar partnerships between major media companies and other big ad tech firms.

Between the lines: The deal will help Disney achieve its goal of shifting more than 50% of all of its advertising sales to automated buying.

• Disney said last year its goal is to sell more than half of its ads in automated fashion in the next four years.

The big picture: The deal comes as the streaming advertising landscape grows more competitive.

• Disney has long led the industry in digital television advertising, but now more big streamers, including Netflix, are looking to integrate digital advertising into their streaming solutions.
• Asked about Netflix’s foray into advertising, Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of advertising sales for its media and entertainment distribution arm, said, “I love our hand right now. ... We’re in a really good place with the investments we've made” and “in the partnerships we have in place to make sure that we're delivering for our partners.”
• For now, automated advertising is still a small portion of the overall television advertising that's sold in the U.S., but it’s expected to grow significantly as more TV companies and advertisers invest in automated technology.

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The Information is rolling out a series of features designed to make it easier for its network of influential tech and business subscribers to connect, its founder and CEO Jessica Lessin told Axios.

Details: The new networking system, which rolls out this week, will include three core features:

• User profiles, where subscribers can share details about their interests and can opt in to direct message each other.
• A directory, which can be filtered based on location, occupation, etc.
• A forum, a news feed-like page where they can post interesting articles (including those beyond The Information's work) or thoughts that can be up- or down-ranked and commented on.

Between the lines: The forum is reminiscent of Hacker News, the Reddit-like site for tech news launched by the Y Combinator startup accelerator in 2007 that became a key hub for tech-industry insiders to share headlines.

Be smart: In the future, the Information could find opportunities to directly monetize the new features, Lessin said.

• One example she cites could be a job board, where companies could pay to post jobs.

By the numbers: Lessin didn't provide an updated paid subscriber or free user number, but said that the company has “well into the tens of thousands” of paid subscribers and that its core consumer subscription business has grown revenue more than 35% year over year.

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Reuters is launching a new subscription research business called Reuters Insight that will be geared toward individuals making corporate strategy decisions.

Why it matters: The new business unit becomes Reuters' first-ever subscription business aimed at individuals rather than whole enterprises.

• The company's previously announced subscription plan for its news site is in limbo amid a corporate dispute with its financial data provider Refinitiv.

Details: Reuters Insights will provide subscribers with polling of senior industry executives, as well as custom research and analysis, to help them make professional decisions and shape their business strategies.

• The introductory pricing is $2,500 per year, per vertical, per Josh London, Reuters CMO and head of Reuters Professional.

The big picture: The new business line is part of a greater push by Reuters to service individual professionals, as opposed to enterprise clients.

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Verishop, the luxury e-commerce site created by former Snapchat chief strategy officer Imran Khan, has raised over $40 million in a series B financing round, bringing its total funds raised to $57.5 million, Axios has learned.

• The round was led by Lion Capital, a consumer-focused investment group, with participation from existing investors.

By the numbers: Verishop now has over 4,000 brands on its platform, up from 150 at launch, making it one of the largest aggregators of independent and emerging retail brands online.

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A group of media veterans is launching a new digital media and commerce company called The Cool Down with $5.7 million in a funding round led by Upfront Ventures.

• The company is co-founded and led by Dave Finocchio, co-founder and former CEO of Bleacher Report, and Anna Robertson, a former ABC and Yahoo News executive.

What's next: The company will launch with original content on climate change and plans to roll out an e-commerce marketplace in 2023 for a wide array of eco-friendly goods.

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Spotify said Tuesday it will acquire Heardle, a daily music trivia game that tasks players with identifying a song based on its opening notes.

Why it matters: The deal builds on Spotify's efforts to make it easier to discover and interact with music on its platform.

• Heardle is inspired by the popular word guessing game "Wordle," which was acquired by the New York Times in 2022.
• Like Wordle, Heardle is only available once daily to players on its own website and app. It gives users just six tries to guess a popular song based on its opening notes.

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