Media Intelligence Stories You Missed in August
August is usually a quiet month as we all take a much-needed break. But, this summer two threads ran clearly through the news. The first was financial. A run of second-quarter results from Innodata, Sprout Social and ACCESS Newswire showed growth and change in strategy to reflect the rise of AI. The second was the continuing race to measure brand visibility inside AI-generated answers. Cision and Onclusive staked fresh claims in GEO.
Pulsar Group reassures investors over HMRC discussions
Pulsar Group, the AIM-listed owner of Isentia, Vuelio, Pulsar and ResponseSource, confirmed it was in talks with the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs over the timing of VAT and PAYE payments after a winding-up petition was revealed. Shares fell around 11 per cent to 25.01 pence as the news broke. The board said substantial payments had already been made and that the balance would be settled from the group’s normal cash collections, adding that underlying trading remained stable, the business was operating as normal, and it expected to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
Innodata’s AI strategy is paying off
Innodata, whose portfolio includes Agility PR Solutions, reported record second-quarter revenue of $USD 92.1 million, up 58% year on year and adjusted EBITDA of $USD 25.4 million. Innodata’s management reiterated full-year guidance for revenue growth of 40% or more. The figures underlined how decisively the company has repositioned itself around supplying training and evaluation data and services to the large technology firms building and fine-tuning AI models, a strategic shift that has redefined the group behind one of the sector’s long-standing PR software brands.
Sprout Social leans into enterprise
Sprout Social, reported second-quarter revenue of $USD 123.8 million, up 11% year on year, with subscription revenue of $USD 121.9 million. The number of customers with contracts valued at $USD 30,000 or more in ARR grew to 3,926, also up 11%. The company guided to full-year revenue of between USD 493.0 million and USD 495.6 million as it deepened its focus on larger, enterprise accounts and accelerated its AI roadmap.
ACCESS Newswire focused on innovation
ACCESS Newswire reported second-quarter revenue of $USD 5.62 million. Average ARR per subscriber reached $USD 12,718. The company highlighted its focus on product innovation, including the recently launched Social Monitoring platform and Insights & Analytics Report.
Cision warns of a ‘fragmentation tax’ and collects awards
Following the release of AI search analytics in CisionOne last month, Cision spent August highlighting that brands lose value when they treat search, social, news and AI signals in isolation. A new report introduced the idea of a ‘fragmentation tax’, the hidden cost of leaving data sources disconnected, and found that 40% of marketing professionals viewed integrating data from multiple sources as their biggest challenge. Cision’s Chief Product Officer Jim Daxner argued that brands have a connection problem rather than a data problem. Soon after the company collected three MarTech Breakthrough Awards, as Brandwatch was named Social Listening Solution of the Year, PR Newswire took Press Release Distribution Company of the Year, and PR Newswire Amplify won AEO Platform of the Year for its answer-engine-optimisation tools.
Media Intelligence Product Updates
Here are some of the product announcements that caught our attention this month:
Nemi Insights unveiled an AI-powered media intelligence platform built for India’s multilingual market, spanning Nemi Pulse for news alerts, Nemi Spike for predictive alerts and NIA for sentiment analysis, alongside a round-the-clock dashboard with automated summaries