Blueprint — page 133 | The Gradient

Paramount, Warner, and the Price of Consolidation

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Paramount, Warner, and the Price of Consolidation

Yuka Hirac stretches and distorts photos to create uncanny worlds born from teenage subcultures

Yuka Hirac likes to render perceptions malleable through her photography, bookmaking, and multidisciplinary practices, initially starting up in London studying makeup. “Whether it’s skin covered in makeup, or a photograph printed on paper, I’m interested in moments when perception fluctuates slightly through layering, creating moments of both uneasiness and beauty,” she tells It’s Nice That.

WP Engine Vs Automattic & Mullenweg Is Back In Play

WP Engine filed a Second Amended Complaint against Automattic and Matt Mullenweg in response to the September 2025 court order that dismissed several counts but gave WP Engine an opportunity to amend and fix issues in its earlier filing. Although Mullenweg blogged last month that the ruling was a “significant milestone,” that’s somewhat of an

How to Keep the CMO From Becoming an Endangered Species

While the chief marketing officer (CMO) post isn’t about to disappear tomorrow, it’s impossible to ignore the mounting evidence of its steady erosion. As ADWEEK reported in August, the average CMO tenure slipped from 4.1 years in 2024 to 3.9 years in 2025. Last year, 63% of Fortune 500 companies had CMOs—but in 2025, that

How I turned a boring office into an inspiring art studio

My studio is in an office building full of realtors and physical therapy offices. No one really knows there’s an art studio on the first floor. I roll into the studio around 5am most days. There’s a front office where a lot of my books are and where my assistant works, and a lot of

Why AI Search Isn’t Overhyped & What To Focus On Right Now

Out of many direct conversations I’ve had in the industry, there’s a mixed reaction to how much AI might impact SEO and search. It depends on your business model as to just how much of a catastrophic effect LLM platforms have taken away your clicks and, more importantly, your end business outcomes. Google still remains

60% of shoppers expect to use AI agents in the next 12 months

MarTechCharts regularly highlights data of interest to marketers and marketing operations professionals. Agentic AI is rapidly changing the face and feel of shopping for both retailers and consumers, according to a report on agentic commerce from management consultancy firm Kearney. The report, “Agentic Commerce: From Brand Loyalty to Bot Logic,” found 73% of consumers are

Ceramics and tattoo imagery come together in Adam Shrewsbury’s exercise in fragility

Adam Shrewsbury, the Southeast Michigan-based tattoo artist, has found more than just people to tattoo. Inspired by traditional tattooing, stylistically and symbolically, the talismanic vernacular of tattoo imagery creates a gateway into life’s major realities for Adam: love, loss, hope, betrayal, triumph, endurance – and death. When Adam’s mother suddenly died when he was a

Timeline Of ChatGPT Updates & Key Events

At the end of 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT and opened up an easy-to-access interface to large language models (LLMs) for the first time. The uptake was stratospheric. Since the explosive launch, ChatGPT hasn’t shown signs of slowing down in developing new features or maintaining worldwide user interest. As of September 2025, ChatGPT now has a

Diageo creates RTD marketing director role

Kirsten McPherson will lead Diageo’s ready-to-drink strategy in the UK, as the spirits giant looks to lean further into the high-growth area. Diageo is introducing its first marketing director for the ready-to-drink (RTD) category in the UK, as the spirits giant looks to drive growth in the area. Kirsten McPherson will take on the newly

Decades later, TRON’s Oscar snub feels oddly prophetic

With TRON: Ares finally in cinemas, the digital frontier is glowing again (though a little dimmer than before). The news sent me back to the 1982 original, and honestly, rewatching it feels like discovering the moment cinema first embraced something new. Among the best CG films of the 1980s, a shortlist that barely existed at

AI Survival Strategies For Publishers

The rise of AI technologies has brought a level of panic to the publishing industry not seen since the birth of the world wide web. We all know AI is changing how people engage with websites, but we’re not sure yet what these changes will lead to. The fact that AI is just past its

Sora and the making of the vibe creator

Yes, this is another Sora story. But this one’s less about the tech and more about what it’s doing to the people behind it — creators or as they’re being branded, “vibe creators.” It sounds like a joke, but give it time, it might actually stick. Every day since OpenAI’s video-generation launched last week has

A Life Among Letters unearths an unseen chapter of Czech typography

Hopping on the tram to Pentřiny to the designer’s home with a bouquet under one arm and her printed questions in another, Anežka was apprehensive, but was met with a warm welcome from Clara. “That was the beginning of many afternoons at her dining table”, she shares, “We talked about books, typography, love, history, and

Multiple WordPress Vulnerabilities Affect 20,000+ Travel Sites

Two critical vulnerabilities were identified in the WP Travel Engine, travel booking plugin for WordPress that’s installed on more than 20,000 websites. Both vulnerabilities enable unauthenticated attackers to obtain virtually complete control of a website and are rated 9.8 on the CVSS scale, very close to the highest possible score for critical flaws. WP Travel

Building a Framework for Authentic Real-Time Brand Strategy That Works

This post was created in partnership with Monks Key takeaways The ability to move fast requires alignment from more departments than just marketing. A real-time strategy doesn’t mean brands must participate in every trend. Marketers with boundless curiosity and a commitment to change will be better prepared to navigate the future. Real-time brand strategy is

What brands can learn from this year’s Britpop summer

As we move into the cosy autumn season, we must bid a fond farewell to our hot Britpop summer. That (heat)wave of nostalgia-fuelled joyful entertainment evoked one of two experiences – for the older generation, a reminder of the music and memories of their youth, and for the younger generation, an introduction to some of

Google Lighthouse 13 Launches With Insight-Based Audits

Google has released Lighthouse 13 with a broad audit consolidation that aligns Lighthouse reports with Chrome DevTools’ newer insight model. The update is available now via npm and Chrome Canary. It will roll into PageSpeed Insights within about a week and is slated for Chrome’s stable channel with version 143. Google says the update doesn’t

Zeta Global unveils ‘superintelligent,’ natural language AI agent

Zeta Global introduced a natural language AI agent this week, personalizing the digital workspace for marketers using the Zeta platform. Known as Athena by Zeta, the company calls it a “superintelligent” agent with access to Zeta’s data cloud and contextual intelligence. Athena adapts to users’ goals, style and decisions and removes the friction between marketers

MindTheGap explores how nightlife can dazzle off the dancefloor

When you think of the raving experience, creative direction isn’t the first think to come to mind. MindTheGap are the rave collective based in London and Seoul working with artists and creative studios to curate their identify fit for nightlife. In collaboration with artists like Jaewook Shin, Siniša, Hyoungmin Lee, and Studio Tuh, MindTheGap is

Google Quietly Signals NotebookLM Ignores Robots.txt

Google has quietly updated its list of user-triggered fetchers with new documentation for Google NotebookLM. The importance of this seemingly minor change is that it’s clear that Google NotebookLM will not obey robots.txt. Google NotebookLM NotebookLM is an AI research and writing tool that enables users to add a web page URL, which will process

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