The Arena Group, operating as Paradium.AI, has acquired InfoSentience, a company specialising in automated, data-driven natural language generation. The acquisition was completed using cash on hand and is expected to be accretive to earnings in 2026. InfoSentience's technology automates data-heavy reporting, allowing editorial teams to focus on investigative journalism whilst scaling content production in sectors like global finance and professional sports. The company has worked with partners including MaxPreps. InfoSentience will continue serving third-party clients and seeking new business. Founder Steve Wasick will remain with the combined company. The Arena Group's portfolio includes brands such as Parade, TheStreet, Men's Journal, and Athlon Sports.

How the Arena Group is taking media brands offline and into real-world experiences. License Global explores how the media company is leveraging editorial authority and audience insights to create immersive hospitality destinations, marking a new era for media brand extensions. August 6, 2026 In an era where media brands are constantly seeking new revenue streams, The Arena Group is turning its portfolio of adventure and sports publications into tangible, bookable experiences. The Arena Group, whose portfolio includes Parade, Men's Journal, Athlon Sports, TheStreet and the Adventure Sports Network (ASN), has partnered with I-dentity Group to launch the Travel Adventure Network (TAN), an online travel agency connecting users to adventure-driven packages, hotels and real estate. Alongside it, The Arena Group, I-dentity Group and Enjoy Hospitality Group have opened the first resort under the ASN banner, an all-suite property in Downtown Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, featuring four dining venues, three bars, three pools and shuttle access to Juanillo Beach. Enjoy Hospitality Group operates the Cap Cana property and holds the exclusive Caribbean license for TAN Resorts. License Global spoke with Eric Karp, head, licensing, The Arena Group to understand the strategy behind the expansion and where it's headed next. Why publishing translates to LBE. The move builds on a strategy Karp has been developing across digital publishers over the past decade, including previous roles at BuzzFeed and Vox Media. What drew him to each, he said, was the two-way relationship these platforms have with readers. Unlike traditional media, which pushes content out to an audience, digital-first publishers can survey readers directly and gauge purchase intent before a product ever launches. He compares it to the insight testing that packaged-goods companies run. "If you have that dynamic relationship, you can mitigate a lot of the risk," says Karp. That same audience relationship also gives The Arena Group a built-in marketing engine with editorial, social and site inventory that can drive traffic directly to a brand extension, rather than relying entirely on a manufacturing or distribution partner to sell it. That dynamic - reading audience behavior and responding to it in real time - is what gives these extensions an authentic, community-driven feel rooted in each brand's editorial voice, as opposed to relying on a familiar name alone. The Travel Adventure Network. The TAN launch follows the model The Arena Group tested with the Men's Journal Spirit Shop roughly a year ago. Rather than license the Men's Journal name to a spirits maker for a single branded bottle, Karp says the company built and owns its own storefront. This also allows Men's Journal to drive its audience through newsletters and content. Applying that logic to the Adventure Sports Network brands, which include Surfer, Powder and Bike, led to two parallel bets: an online travel agency and branded resorts. The Cap Cana property falls under the broader ASN umbrella instead of a single title, since it isn't purpose-built for surfing or skiing specifically. Karp describes it as one of ten such resorts in the pipeline, each selected for a strong underlying destination and updated through new design and branding. "The thinking for us is to find these resorts all over the world and rebrand them and make them fresh through our branding, and then, most importantly, use our platforms to promote them and drive folks to those resorts," says Karp. More immersive, specific title-related properties are also in development. "We're looking at El Salvador, we have a great destination and a great surfing place that needs rebranding, and we have a couple of ski resorts out west who we're in advanced conversations with," says Karp, adding that those will lean fully into Surfer or Powder branding. Additional hospitality plans. Beyond ASN, Karp reveals The Arena Group is in advanced discussions for a series of Athlon Sports-branded hotels, with a flagship likely in Las Vegas and additional properties in college towns such as Ann Arbor, Birmingham and Atlanta, each designed to reflect the color and character of the local university. Karp pointed to the economics of college-town hospitality as part of the appeal, given the guaranteed high-occupancy weekends around football games, graduation and campus tours. The company is also in early talks to bring TheStreet's branding to an airport newsstand concept, a natural extension for a financial publication reaching travelers on the go. Karp says the common thread across the projects is matching a brand's specific authority to the right format, so each extension feels earned rather than applied. He also pointed to a difference in how The Arena Group approaches its licensing partnerships more broadly. "We'll contractually oblige ourselves to actively day in, day out, beat the drum and drive awareness and hopefully drive conversion as well," he says, through newsletters, editorial content and advertising across its sites. The opportunity ahead. For other licensors weighing similar moves, Karp's advice centers on validating audience appetite before investing, since hospitality and travel projects carry higher stakes than a typical product license. "The first rule of brand licensing is the same as doctors. It's do no harm," he says, noting that a bad experience can diminish enthusiasm for a brand built over years or decades. The Arena Group runs insight testing ahead of major brand extensions, not to confirm a predetermined answer but to validate or invalidate assumptions before scaling. Karp also sees these projects as more than standalone revenue streams. The Arena Group is building and owning the experience itself, extending the same editorial storytelling its publications do on the page into physical, real-world spaces. "These new websites, which are commerce-related websites, become part of our overall portfolio, and they expand the reach and the voice of our brands," he says. "They become destinations in and of themselves where The Brand Liaison can do storytelling. Digital Editor, License Global Gianna Rosenbach is a Digital Editor for License Global. Based in the U.S., Gianna started her professional career as a graphic designer, helping brands establish their visual identity, style and tone of voice. Her background also covers the consumer packaged goods industry, where she reported on trends for B2B publications. Join 62,000+ members. Yes, it's completely free. Google Preferred Source Set License Global as a preferred source to get quicker access to the news you value.

5 major publishers adopting Gist's new ad format built for AI consumer discovery. PR Newswire Today at 6:02am PDT Publisher coalition reaching up to a combined 1 billion monthly pageviews turns questions into new ad inventory as AI answers reshape how consumers search LOS ANGELES, June 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Five of the most recognized names in publishing, The Arena Group, BuzzFeed, DMGT, Frommer's, and Sports Illustrated, are partnering with Gist, the AI visibility platform from ProRata, to deploy Gist Answers and the Question Bar, a new advertising format built for a world where consumers ask questions instead of typing keywords. As LLMs answer questions directly, publishers lose the referral traffic that has long supported their journalism, and brands lose the search visibility and predictable discovery they have had for more than two decades. Gist Answers and the Question Bar are designed to address both problems at once. The shift is already underway. According to a March 2026 Orbit Media & Question Pro survey, more than half of US consumers say they now start a search by opening an AI app. The Question Bar sits inside a publisher's page and surfaces the questions readers are most likely to ask about the story in front of them. Tapping a question delivers an answer drawn from the publisher's own content, keeping readers on site instead of departing to a wholly new search environment. For publishers, the result is deeper engagement and net new ad inventory in the form of sponsored questions. For advertisers, these sponsored questions place their brand inside the moment of consumer curiosity while generating first-party insights into the questions audiences are asking. Brands using Gist's GEO product can then extend that visibility further, measuring and optimizing how they appear in answers across leading AI models. "Consumers have stopped hunting for links. They ask questions and expect answers," said Michele Tobin, Chief Revenue Officer of Gist and ProRata. "Between every question a consumer asks and every answer they receive, a brand either earns its place or disappears. Gist Answers and the Question Bar both place brands in that space in partnership with publishers consumers already trust." The Question Bar is live now on The Arena Group sites including Autoblog. Sports Illustrated has deployed Gist Answers across their site. Frommer's and BuzzFeed will roll out Gist's products in the coming weeks. DGMT will deploy on Metro first, followed by other titles. The format is immediately available to advertisers. Gist is on track to serve 500M questions by the end of June and 1B+ per month by the end of Q3. "Gist's offerings for publishers and advertisers create meaningful net new inventory that didn't exist for either party, provided by a company with respect for publishers at the core of its mission, " said The Arena Group CEO Paul Edmondson. "We're excited to partner with Gist in building for the new Q&A Economy, with common language, policy and tools we can use to invest in the future together." "Keywords built the last advertising economy. Questions will build the next one," said Bill Gross, founder and CEO of Gist and ProRata. "And we are proud to be creating that market with publishers, not around them." About Gist Gist, a ProRata platform, helps brands own the conversation from question to answer in the Q&A economy introduced by generative AI. Gist's suite of tools - including Gist GEO, Gist Ads, Gist Answers and the Question Bar - gives brands the presence, relevance, and placement they need to be found, understood, and chosen. These offerings provide approachable access to data-powered insights, organic performance through GEO, query results and complementary paid media. For more information, visit www.gist.ai. Press Contact Jason Fink Executive Vice President Mark Allen & Co. 917.495.8639 [email protected] SOURCE Gist This is a paid placement. For further inquiries, please contact PR Newswire directly.