Today’s Big Story

The New Streaming Habits

Americans are now in a pattern of subscribe, watch, then cancel and repeat

How many streaming services do you currently subscribe to? First off, it’s probably way more than you realize. But you might have also gotten savvy about canceling them once you’ve finished binging the latest popular show.

I, for one, just canceled my Max subscription. Again. As we continue to embrace the convenience and diversity offered by streaming services, it’s no wonder that we bounce around from one to the next. After all, we only have so many hours to devote to watching them—currently, that’s three hours and nine minutes, on average. And canceling is as simple as tapping on our phone screen. Sound familiar?

Americans are getting increasingly impulsive about hitting the cancellation button on their streaming services. More than 29 million—about a quarter of domestic paying streaming subscribers—have canceled three or more services over the last two years, according to Antenna, a subscription research firm. And the numbers are rising fast.

The New York Times calls us “nomadic subscribers,” those of us taking advantage of how easy it is to hopscotch from one service to the next. Are we fickle? Or financially responsible? Because a third of Americans have resubscribed to the canceled service within six months, according to Antenna’s research. But that’s probably only because a show has come back and now they’re ready to watch again.

The change gives consumers far more flexibility, but the implications could be significant for the major media companies, especially if this behavior becomes even more common. As a result, the companies slashed investments in shows—the number of scripted shows in the United States in 2023 suffered its steepest decline in at least 15 years—and are raising prices to their streaming services. Less loyal subscribers could introduce a whole new level of complexity to their business. Last year, these “serial churners,” as Antenna calls them, accounted for roughly 40% of all new subscriptions and cancellations.

Inside the Trump Trial’s Opening Statements

The first criminal trial of Donald Trump is officially underway

Monday was officially day five of Donald Trump's historic criminal hush money trial, but it was also the first day of legal arguments before jurors. Proceedings lasted little more than three hours, but both parties delivered opening statements, lifting the veil on arguments they plan to present over the coming weeks.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo described what he called a three-pronged scheme to promote Trump in the tabloid media, run negative stories about his opponents, and conspire to catch and kill negative stories about Trump. Prosecutors also called David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, who prosecutors allege engaged in a conspiracy with Trump and Michael Cohen to control the public narrative about him ahead of the 2016 election. He testified for less than 30 minutes Monday morning before the trial adjourned for the day. He’s expected to continue testifying today.

Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney, argued that the alleged conduct described by prosecutors was nothing more than politics as usual. “I have a spoiler alert,” Blanche told jurors during his opening statement. “There is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.” And before the trial resumes today, the judge is holding a hearing on allegations that Trump violated the gag order barring discussion of witnesses. His lawyers have argued that his social media posts do not actually violate the gag order. I guess we’ll find out today.

Colleges Struggle With Protests

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested while officials worry about future demonstrations

Columbia University canceled in-person classes, police arrested dozens of protesters at Yale and New York universities, and pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up encampments at other colleges Monday as tensions flared again on campuses across the country over the Israel-Gaza war.

Harvard Yard was shut to the public. According to the New York Times, administrators at some of the country’s most influential universities were struggling, and largely failing, to calm campuses. At Tufts and Emerson, officials weighed on how to handle encampments that looked much like the one that the police dismantled at Columbia last week—which protesters quickly resurrected. And on the West Coast, a new encampment bubbled at the University of California, Berkeley.

Students on both sides say there has been a rise in both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents as the war rages on. When asked about the campus protests on Monday, President Biden said he condemned both “the antisemitic protests” as well as “those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians.”

Croissant Trends Are Getting Out of Control

What’s flaky and delicious and what’s just cringe?

The croissant is already a perfect pastry made from yeasty dough that's laminated with sheets of butter to create light, tender, airy layers inside a perfectly flaky golden exterior. Some might argue that you needn’t do anything to it. But then again, adding chocolate to the middle was pretty spectacular.

Then Dominique Ansel created the Cronut, which fused the crescent-shaped pastry with a good ol’ fashioned doughnut. And so began a spiral (sorry) into a full fledged trend of all sorts of croissant-eque flaky pastries. “Historically, pastries go through these cycles of trends,” chef Emily Riddell tells Food & Wine. “It seems like croissants were getting really trendy, and I expected it to naturally fade, but it doesn’t seem like it has.” Why? People just really pay attention to croissants: That Petite Croissant Céréale from Brooklyn’s L’Appartment 4F? It was created as a reward for people who supported the bakery’s early Kickstarter campaign.

During the last month alone, two riffs on the classic croissant went viral on TikTok. Flat croissants, a trend that originated in South Korea, where day-old croissants are pressed, coated in butter, then baked or pan-fried, have taken the United States by storm. And the other is a croissant stuffed with chocolate chip cookie dough. That one, I have to admit, I’m willing to try.

Is Masterworks a Scam?

If you have a portfolio of $250,000 or more, chances are you’ve heard the Masterworks pitch. A lot.

You know, “You can invest in blue-chip art like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso, art prices have outpaced the S&P, it has near-zero correlation, etc.” 

But if you’re still feeling skeptical, let’s look at the facts:

⋆ All investable offerings are SEC-qualified

⋆ Over $55 million total proceeds distributed back to investors

⋆ Median returns of 14.6%, 16.4%, and 17.6%, among their 21 exits

⋆ All disclosures clearly linked on website

⋆ Membership Coordinators standing by to answer any questions you have (even the hard ones)

Now, more than 63,809 investors have entrusted Masterworks offerings with nearly $1 billion in assets under management.

So what are you waiting for? To discover more, just use this exclusive link to unlock VIP access to limited-time offerings.

Set your priorities.