This week’s Media Briefing unpacks the rise of markdown as an AI optimization strategy for publishers, and why not everyone is convinced it’s necessary. For years, publishing meant optimizing for Google. That’s shifting to optimizing for AI. Some publishers — such as Time — think the fix is as simple
John Carpenter has been thrilling us with tales of horror and science fiction for decades, from iconic movies like Halloween, The Thing and Escape from New York to video games (see our John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando review). When it comes to graphic novels, he’s been an editor and contributor on
Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis is now Chief Scientist of Alphabet and Chair of Google DeepMind. In bigger news, Jeff Dean has announced that he is stepping away from Google and is founding a new AI company called Discovery Loop. These changes
The following is a teaser of ADWEEK’s August cover story, which was featured in On Background with Mark Stenberg, a free, weekly newsletter that explores the key themes shaping the media industry. You can sign up for it here. On a Friday morning in June, Jimmy Donaldson—better known as MrBeast—notched a
General Compute builds ASIC-based infrastructure for AI inference ? a deliberate alternative to the GPU status quo, engineered for lightspeed intelligence. The identity centers on an asymmetric radial burst: tapered needle-rays converging on an off-center void that reads as a latent “G” ? energy resolving into form. It’s paired with
I have dozens of conversations per week with folks in growth and marketing, ranging from directors, VPs of marketing, and CMOs to SEOs in the nitty-gritty day-to-day. Many of my conversations involve measurement. This is an increasingly challenging topic as traditional SEO metrics are breaking down with the advent of
New research says software vendors are routinely collecting far more customer data than is needed and using it to build commercial products. The findings come from Clark Barron, founder of Blackout, a company that provides GTM threat intelligence through forensic analysis of marketing software. His research examines browser code, JavaScript,
The Philadelphia-based Sam Wenc, an interdisciplinary artist, composer and “improviser” has been making album covers, show posters and merchandise for over ten years. It really shows. A self taught designer, his work is inspired by various aesthetics which is evident in his taste of music – Yo La Tengo, Emahoy
Google has finally separated generative AI visibility from the rest of the data in Search Console. On June 3, 2026, Google announced dedicated Generative AI performance reports for Search and Discover. The announcement fell on my birthday, which felt briefly thoughtful until I realized the gift was all impressions and
Teads has filed suit against Google’s ad tech practices, bringing the sum total of such cases to four as the industry awaits the looming remedies ruling from Justice Leonie Brinkema following a related antitrust case. The developments bring Teads in lockstep with fellow ad tech companies Magnite, OpenX, and PubMatic,
