Questex Used AI Agents to Close $1 Million in 90 Days
Questex, a B2B media and events firm, piloted two AI sales agents—Alice for outbound prospecting and Julian for inbound lead handling—over three months, generating over $1 million each in pipeline and closed revenue. Julian’s two‑minute call response boosted inbound meeting conversion from 30% to 37%, attributing $1.056 million in closed deals. The AI tools also cut video production time to 24 hours at a $2,000 cost, enabling portfolio‑wide scaling. Questex positions AI as a force multiplier that automates repetitive tasks while humans retain the closing role.
The Rating Agencies Still Think This Is a Junky Credit. We Continue to Disagree.
A high‑yield operator, still labeled junk by rating agencies, is trading at yields above 8.5% after posting its strongest ADR in a decade and retiring nearly $2 billion of debt in the last 12 months. The bonds have risen above par,...
Geopolitical Hopes Underpin Risk Appetites
Investors are buoyed by hopes for a Middle‑East de‑escalation, pushing oil prices about $3 lower and lifting equity markets in most regions except Japan, China and Hong Kong. The dollar is mixed: the New Zealand dollar surged 0.75% after a hawkish...
OffBall, Substack Partner for ‘OffBallFC’ Brand in Partnership with USMNT Star Folarin Balogun
OffBall, the sports‑culture studio, has teamed with Substack to launch OffBallFC, a new soccer‑focused brand aimed at American fans. The venture will deliver two newsletters per week, social content and live events, beginning this week ahead of the 2026 World...
Global Liquidity Watch: Weekly Update
Global liquidity climbed to a record $193.2 trillion last week, driven primarily by Federal Reserve and Treasury interventions rather than organic market growth. Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China curtailed domestic liquidity, contributing to a weaker short‑term money market (SMB) environment....
What Is the Purpose of Kaizen? John Shook Answers Your Questions (Part 3 of 3)
In the final episode of a three‑part series, lean veteran John Shook explains that the true purpose of kaizen is to keep the improvement cycle moving, not to achieve a flawless system. He stresses a paradoxical mindset: be patient for...
A Tale of Two Countries – The Real Estate Crises in 1990s Japan and Contemporary China
A new Brookings paper by Kenneth Rogoff and Yuanchen Yang compares China’s current real‑estate slowdown with Japan’s 1990s property bust. The authors note that real estate now accounts for roughly one‑third of China’s aggregate demand and that housing represents about...
Top Podcast Trends 2026: AI, Video, & Monetization
Podcasting has become a mainstream media habit, with 40% of U.S. adults listening weekly and total listening time up 355% since 2015. Brands now face three operational decisions—budget allocation, workflow design, and measurement discipline—as audio merges with video, niche targeting,...
Measurement of “Computer Software and Accessories” Inflation
A sharp rise in the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index’s “Computer Software and Accessories” category has drawn attention to structural market shifts and statistical quirks. Researchers estimate that a mismatch between the CPI and PCE baskets accounts for about...
AI for SEO in 2026: How to Use It Without Getting Penalised by Google
The article outlines how to leverage AI for SEO in 2026 while avoiding Google’s helpful‑content penalties. It distinguishes tasks where AI adds value—such as schema generation, sitemap diagnostics, internal linking, and competitor gap analysis—from risky activities like mass AI‑only content,...
I Rebuilt My Marketing Business with AI: 14 Months In, Here’s What Worked and What Didn’t (2026)
Lilach Bullock, a 21‑year marketing veteran, rebuilt his consultancy by investing six weeks in AI‑powered infrastructure in early 2024, then layered AI into SEO, sales, newsletter production, and interactive tools. The custom WordPress publishing pipeline alone saved roughly 400 hours...
Apollo’s $3 Billion Fund Sale:
Apollo Global Management is in talks to sell its listed BDC, MidCap Financial Investment Corp., for roughly $3 billion. The potential transaction underscores a broader shift as private‑credit firms use the secondary market for strategic balance‑sheet and liquidity management rather than...
RBNZ Gov Breman Says All Policy Setters Agree on Hikes, but Not on Timing
RBNZ Governor Anna Breman announced that the Reserve Bank kept the official cash rate at 2.25% after a razor‑thin 3‑3 committee split, using her casting vote to hold. She said the ongoing Middle East conflict was the immediate trigger for...
BOJ Signals Loose Conditions Persist as Ueda Lays Groundwork for Rate Hike Ahead
Bank of Japan officials signaled that Japan’s financial conditions remain accommodative, even as long‑term yields rise. Director‑General Akio Okuno told parliament that negative real rates, strong corporate profits and modestly improving labor markets support further policy normalisation. Governor Kazuo Ueda...
Why the RBA Will Remain on Hold in June
Australia’s consumer price index eased to 4.2% year‑over‑year in April, down from 4.6% in March, helped by a 7% drop in petrol prices and lower public‑transport fares. The policy‑relevant trimmed‑mean inflation rose slightly to 3.4%, staying within the Reserve Bank...
Australia April CPI Slows to 4.2% but Core Inflation Creeps to Highest Since 2024
Australia’s consumer price index eased to a 4.2% annual rise in April, missing the 4.4% consensus as a temporary fuel excise cut pulled down transport costs. The trimmed‑mean core inflation gauge, however, ticked up to 3.4% year‑over‑year, the highest level...
Strategic Leadership in an Intelligent Organization
The article argues that future leaders must act as moral compasses while AI agents power the operational engine of organizations. Leadership shifts from task execution to defining purpose, setting ethical constraints, and overseeing autonomous governance modules. Trust, systemic empathy, and...
RBNZ Leaves Its Cash Rate on Hold at 2.25%, as Widely Expected
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) left its Official Cash Rate unchanged at 2.25% after a split 3‑3 vote, with the governor casting the deciding vote. The decision aligned with a near‑unanimous expectation among economists that the bank would...
The Ellison Trust-Busting Is Getting Political
Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery has ignited a high‑stakes antitrust showdown. The company has hired top litigators, including Winston & Strawn’s Jeffrey Kessler, with Latham, Cravath and other elite firms expected to join. A coalition of state attorneys general is challenging the...
How a Teenage Gamer Built a 60-Million-Reader Media Empire
Riad Chikhani turned a teenage RuneScape forum into the GAMURS Group, a portfolio of 17 gaming publications that now attracts roughly 60 million monthly users. After selling his first community at 17, he learned that audience culture must be preserved, prompting...
Baseten in Talks to Raise $1B at an $11B Valuation, More than Doubling Its Valuation From Just Three Months Ago
Baseten, a San Francisco AI inference platform, is in talks to raise $1 billion, valuing the company at about $11 billion. The proposed valuation more than doubles the $5 billion mark set only three months ago. The company’s annualized revenue surged to roughly...
Wix CEO Tells Staff He Won’t “Pretend” No Changes Are Coming as Layoff Reports Spread Before Management Could Respond
Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami sent an all‑staff email acknowledging that the company is reviewing its structure, priorities and costs, and that potential layoffs could affect roughly 1,000 employees, about 20% of the workforce. He apologized that the news broke in...
Mike Elko Gets Real About CFP Expansion Talk: ‘None of Us Are Answering for the Good of the Sport’
Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko told reporters that most SEC coaches support a 24‑team College Football Playoff for self‑preservation, not the sport’s good. He criticized the lack of a unified CEO to prioritize football’s health and called out the...
The 5 Maritime Chokepoints That Move the World Economy
A handful of maritime chokepoints—Hormuz, Malacca, Bab el‑Mandeb, the Turkish Straits and the Taiwan Strait—carry the bulk of global seaborne trade. Hormuz alone moves roughly 20 million barrels of oil daily, about a quarter of the world’s seaborne crude, while Malacca...
The Optimist’s Case for the UFC and F1 Megadeals
Paramount secured UFC broadcasting rights in a $7.7 billion deal announced by David Ellison after his acquisition of the studio. A few months later Apple struck a massive agreement for global Formula 1 streaming, prompting skepticism about the $4.5 trillion tech giant’s sports‑rights...
Pasqal Moves Toward Nasdaq Listing Through Bleichroeder SPAC Deal
Pasqal Holding SAS announced a Form F‑4 filing to merge with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II, a Nasdaq‑listed SPAC. The transaction values Pasqal at roughly $2 billion pre‑money and would deliver about $500 million in gross proceeds once closed. Pasqal, a leader in neutral‑atom quantum...
How a Cloud Computing Consultant Built a Community-First Media Business Focused on Microsoft Software
Tom Arbuthnot, a former Microsoft collaboration consultant, launched Empowering Cloud in 2022 as a community‑first media platform for Microsoft Teams and related tools. The business gates most content behind a login, blending sponsorships, premium organizational memberships, research products, and educational...
State of the Workflow: The Philosophy of Obsidian, with CEO Steph Ango
In a recent episode of the Cortex podcast, Obsidian CEO Steph Ango outlined the company’s philosophy of building a "tool for thought" that relies on plain‑text markdown and bidirectional links. He explained how a seven‑person remote team creates software that...
ARIMA on Grocery Prices
Grocery‑at‑home CPI is climbing faster than the headline CPI, and a log‑scale chart shows the trajectory steepening from January to May 2026. The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) ARIMA model forecasts a 3.2% year‑over‑year rise in grocery prices for 2026,...
How Austria’s Biggest Explainer Podcast Built a Sustainable Independent Media Business
Economist‑turned‑journalist Andreas Sator launched the German‑language explainer podcast *Erklär mir die Welt* in 2018, turning a side project into Austria’s leading independent media brand. The show now draws roughly 60,000 monthly listeners and earns about $165,000 in annual revenue, while...
The CEO's Role as Champion of the Unified GTM Operating Model
The article argues that CEOs must act as architects and champions of a unified go‑to‑market (GTM) operating model rather than its day‑to‑day operators. While functional leaders lack cross‑functional authority, only the CEO can set strategic direction, allocate resources, approve metrics,...
Getting Used to the MLB.TV Experience — Before the Next Big Change
Major League Baseball’s streaming platform MLB.TV is settling into a new normal as the league prepares for its next major overhaul, likely involving pricing, packaging, and broader distribution. Recent viewership data shows steady subscriber growth, while the Netflix MLB opener,...
The New Talent Imperative: How Leading Organizations Are Getting Serious About AI Skills
Leading firms are recognizing that AI tool deployment alone won’t deliver value without a parallel focus on employee AI capabilities. A recent webinar highlighted how organizations are defining, sourcing, assessing, and developing AI skills for non‑technical roles, from basic literacy...
The IPO Buzz: Applied Aerospace & Defense (AADX Proposed) Sets Terms for $634 Mln IPO
Applied Aerospace & Defense (AADX), a Huntsville‑based aerospace and defense services firm backed by Greenbriar Equity, filed an S‑1/A outlining a 32.5 million‑share IPO priced between $18.00 and $21.00. If priced at the $19.50 midpoint, the offering would raise about $633.8 million...
How Brad Hargreaves Turned a Real Estate Newsletter Into a Six-Figure Media and Data Business
Brad Hargreaves launched the paid newsletter Thesis Driven in 2022 to stay connected to real‑estate development after exiting General Assembly and scaling Common. Within months the newsletter generated meaningful revenue, and by 2023 it surpassed six‑figure (≈$100,000) annualized revenue and...
One Key Signal Says Rate Hikes Could Be Coming
Markets have shifted from expecting cooling inflation and imminent rate cuts to anticipating further hikes as inflation ticked up to 3.8% and Fed Chair Jerome Powell prepares to leave. New Treasury market pricing and statements from Fed officials signal a...
How Joe Pulizzi Built a Media Business Servicing the Creator Economy
Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, applied his audience‑first playbook to the creator economy with The Tilt, a newsletter‑centric media venture for content entrepreneurs. The Tilt grew to roughly 35,000 subscribers, launched the Content Entrepreneur Expo, and was...
The $130 Billion Acquisition of Dominion Energy – The Special Situations Report Episode 68
NextEra Energy announced a $130 billion acquisition of Dominion Energy, marking the largest deal of 2026. The transaction merges NextEra’s expansive renewable portfolio with Dominion’s natural‑gas and nuclear assets, creating a utility powerhouse. The deal is slated to close in 2027...
How Salesforce Ben Built a 20-Person Media Company Around Enterprise Software
Ben McCarthy turned a personal Salesforce blog into Salesforce Ben, a 20‑person media company that now attracts over one million monthly pageviews. The outlet capitalizes on the fragmented, constantly evolving Salesforce ecosystem, delivering implementation guides, listicles, and industry commentary. Almost...
AI, Trust, and the Future of High-Volume Hiring: A Conversation with Humanly CEO Prem Kumar
Humanly announced a $25 million Series B round to accelerate product development and expand its team. The company is redefining high‑volume hiring by shifting from pure SaaS to a “service as software” model that delivers a continuous pipeline of qualified candidates. Using...
DePuy Synthes Announces Agreement to Acquire Miniature Radiofrequency Tracking Technology Across Its Joint Reconstruction Portfolio
DePuy Synthes announced a definitive agreement to acquire selective rights to MinMaxMedical’s Gemtrack miniature radio‑frequency (RF) tracking technology for its joint reconstruction portfolio. The RF tracker will be integrated into the VELYS digital surgery platform, covering shoulder, hip and knee procedures...
The New Kind of Invisible: AI Can’t Find Your Business
John Jantsch warns that most small businesses are invisible to modern AI‑driven search. While traditional SEO still matters, today a brand must be findable on Google, social platforms, and AI assistants, prove credibility with specific client proof, and be retrievable...
Christian Hoffman Named Aon’s Global CEO of Commercial Risk
Aon announced that Christian Hoffman will become global CEO of its Commercial Risk division effective June 1. Hoffman brings 25 years of brokerage and underwriting experience, most recently leading Aon’s Global Specialty & Financial Products and North American M&A. Reporting to...
Key Events This Holiday-Shortened Week: PCE, Durables, Consumer Confidence And Fed Speakers
This week’s economic calendar is dominated by U.S. inflation data, with the April personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index slated for Thursday and a modest rise in durable‑goods orders expected. Fed officials, including Vice Chair Jefferson and Dallas President Logan,...
The Business of Benefits: ‘Recharge Fridays’ at Staffbase
Staffbase, the employee‑experience platform, has made “Recharge Fridays” a permanent perk for its 600‑person global workforce, giving non‑essential staff every Friday in August off to disconnect. The policy, first piloted in 2021, treats these days as internal public holidays rather...
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If You Quit Today, This Is Your Legacy [AI Prompt]
Leadership coaches report a consistent 30‑40% gap between how leaders rate their behavior and how their teams perceive it. This blind spot often persists because employees rarely receive a venue for candid feedback. The article promotes an AI‑driven prompt that...
How 1440 Built a 4-Million-Subscriber Newsletter Empire by Obsessing over Unit Economics
1440, a daily news briefing founded by former investment banker Tim Huelskamp, has grown to over 4 million subscribers while remaining bootstrapped and profitable. The company treats the newsletter like a software business, using rigorous unit‑economics to drive high open rates—about...
Mark Trumper Succeeds Jonathan Jackson as Previsico CEO
Previsico, the live flood‑forecasting insurtech, has appointed Mark Trumper as its new chief executive officer, succeeding Jonathan Jackson after more than seven years at the helm. Trumper joins from Axco Insurance Information, where he served as managing director for five...
Untapped Talent: Why Companies Overlook Former Federal Employees
Companies are increasingly risk‑averse, adding interview steps and seeking “safe bets,” yet they struggle to fill leadership roles. A hidden source of seasoned leaders is the federal workforce, where over 300,000 employees left in 2025 and are now eyeing private‑sector...
Morning News: May 26, 2026
U.S. airstrikes against Iranian targets sparked a sharp rise in global crude prices, pushing Brent to roughly $84 a barrel and WTI to about $80, the highest levels in six weeks. The attacks also complicated ongoing diplomatic talks aimed at...