Veteran public affairs strategist brings more than 20 years of experience to strengthen the firm’s longstanding, nationwide advocacy capabilities

With student creators, NIL athletes and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Faith Ward as the newest ambassador, SparkHub gives brands a timely way into tracked creator-led commerce ahead of the holiday shopping season

Salesforce customers using Hunter can combine CRM and sales context with ZoomInfo intelligence to research accounts, find relevant prospects, and prepare personalized outreach, all within Salesforce.

Veteran leader will guide marketing, advertising, and communications as the company expands its presence in talent, consulting, and AI.

PearlMountain Limited is pleased to announce the launch of CutBay, an AI video agent designed to turn ideas, documents, links and media assets into finished videos through a conversational workflow. Instead of requiring users to begin with a blank timeline, CutBay starts with the message they want to communicate and the materials they already have.

At its core, the launch addresses a familiar obstacle in video production. A marketing team may have a product page and campaign brief, an educator may have a presentation, or a business may have a report filled with useful data. Turning those materials into a coherent video has traditionally involved separate steps for scripting, scene planning, design, animation and editing. CutBay brings those stages into one AI-assisted process, while leaving detailed creative decisions with the user.

“Video creation should begin with an idea, not with the challenge of learning complex software,” says Lin Xiao, CEO of PearlMountain Limited. “With CutBay, people can explain what they want to make, review how the story is taking shape and request changes in ordinary language. The goal is to make production more direct while ensuring that users remain in control of their content and final presentation.”

CutBay accepts a range of source material, including written prompts, images, video clips, presentations, documents, spreadsheets and web links. The AI video agent analyzes the input, identifies key points and develops a structured script. It can then arrange scenes and add visuals, captions, voiceovers, music, animation and motion graphics to produce a working video.

Once a draft is ready, users can continue the process through chat. They can ask CutBay to revise a script, change a scene, adjust pacing or explore a different visual direction. A canvas-based editor supports direct changes to text, fonts, colors, sizing and positioning, giving users an immediate way to refine individual elements without relying on another AI generation cycle.

The combination of conversational direction and hands-on editing is intended to reduce the technical effort behind motion design. Tasks that once called for specialized animation software can be approached through straightforward instructions, while the canvas remains available when precision is needed. Users can review the developing video at each stage and make changes before export.

CutBay also provides templates for business communications, marketing, social media, data visualization, education and training. A template can serve as a starting structure rather than a fixed design: users can adapt its scenes, visual style and presentation to suit their own material. This supports projects ranging from product demonstrations and campaign videos to explainers, lessons, onboarding content and animated reports.

By linking source materials, automated production and editable output, CutBay offers a single path from an initial concept to a share-ready video. The platform is available online, with additional information at https://www.cutbay.ai/.

Medeo’s AI video agent now runs the full creative lifecycle, from spotting what’s trending to publishing and earning from the finished video

New analysis of over 3M cold calls shows power dialing outperforms parallel dialing on every outcome metric, with TitanX scoring a measured connect rate of 23% to 29%—a 3.5x to 4x increase compared to the industry average.

Workbounce adds a semantic knowledge layer to the GTM Context Graph, unifying ZoomInfo’s verified market data with the unstructured knowledge inside a company’s own tools

Research initiative under LMC’s AI Accelerator will provide benchmarking insights for small and mid-sized businesses, help local media companies strengthen relationships with local advertisers

The Local Media Consortium (LMC) today announced the launch of its SMB AI Benchmarking Study, a research initiative presented by its Digital On-Demand Services (DODS) division in partnership with Borrell Associates. The second initiative under LMC’s recently launched AI Accelerator for Local Media program, the study will examine how small and mid-sized businesses are using artificial intelligence and navigating a rapidly changing business environment. Findings will provide participating SMBs with valuable benchmarking data while helping local media organizations better understand and support local advertisers.

The research comes at a pivotal moment for local media organizations. Data from the 2026 LMC Industry Insights Survey found that the percentage of publishers identifying agency services as a top priority  declined by 80% year over year, highlighting the need for new ways to serve local advertisers and build sustainable revenue streams. The study is designed to help publishers better understand how businesses perceive, adopt and invest in AI while identifying opportunities to provide more valuable guidance, services and support.

Participating businesses from industries ranging from healthcare and professional services to retail, hospitality and home services will gain access to benchmarking insights that compare local findings with broader regional and national trends. Depending on participation levels, businesses may also be able to compare results within specific industries and local markets. Initial aggregated findings are expected in November 2026.

“Small and mid-sized businesses are being asked to make important decisions about marketing, technology and AI at a pace that is often difficult to keep up with,” said Fran Wills, CEO of the LMC. “Research suggests concerns about the accuracy of AI-generated information remain widespread among small businesses, reinforcing the need for trusted local partners who understand their markets and can help separate hype from reality. This study will help us better understand what local businesses need most and identify new ways local media organizations can support their growth and success.”

The study is expected to identify opportunities for local media organizations to expand the services and expertise they provide to advertisers while deepening their role as trusted advisors. Findings will help publishers better understand how businesses are navigating AI, how AI impacts marketing and technology decisions and where they need additional support.

“I don’t think anyone will disagree that AI is already having a profound effect on the way we conduct business. What’s still a mystery is how deep the seismic shift is being felt among those very busy, very practical SMBs,” said Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates. “Past surveys have shown they’re yearning for a trusted advisor to help them navigate the complex marketing world. This survey will help us learn whether AI has begun filling that role, and how deeply AI may already be embedded in their marketing activities. I’m confident it will uncover early opportunities for local media companies to complement their migration toward AI adoption.”

Participating businesses will have the opportunity to receive a summary of the findings and contribute to one of the most comprehensive studies examining the intersection of AI, advertising and local business growth. The findings will help inform future products, services, educational resources and support programs that strengthen relationships between local media organizations and the businesses they serve.

The SMB AI in Benchmarking Study is part of the Local Media Consortium’s AI Accelerator, a broader effort by the LMC and its Digital On-Demand Services (DODS) division to help local media organizations identify new opportunities for growth, strengthen advertiser relationships and develop solutions that meet evolving market needs. The initiative is supported through funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of the News Media Help Desk, an online resource created by the LMC and the Reynolds Journalism Institute to support the long-term sustainability of local media.

Co-founders Sandi Pearce and Kevin Miles combine distinct strengths in strategy, storytelling and language to help companies build narratives that shape perception and create distinction.

The Narrative Authority (TNA), a narrative strategy firm founded by Editorial Director Sandi Pearce and Creative Director Kevin Miles, has officially opened. TNA helps companies, founders and organizations define the stories they tell the market at a time when AI has made content easier to produce and distinction harder to achieve.

TNA was built on a conviction both founders developed across more than two decades of work: companies do not need more content. They need a clear, credible idea of what they stand for—and language and creative expression that make it matter.

AI can produce words. It cannot replace taste, nuance or judgment. More words than ever are being produced; fewer are landing. TNA closes that gap by building narratives and messaging systems that connect what organizations stand for with how they show up in the market.

Pearce conceived the firm after seeing the potential in combining two different ways of approaching the same problem: Miles’s instinct for finding the central idea and building a compelling story around it and her ability to identify where the thinking, strategy and language could be stronger.

“I saw pretty quickly that Kevin and I brought different strengths to the same problem,” said Pearce. “I believed there was a company in that combination before either of us knew exactly what it might look like. Seven months later, we began building what would become TNA.”

“What makes the partnership work is that Sandi and I don’t see the work the same way,” said Miles. “We notice what the other might not, and that’s the point. TNA grew out of what happens when those perspectives challenge each other and make the work stronger.”

Pearce has spent more than two decades shaping language and ideas across advertising, healthcare, financial services, publishing and enterprise communications. At Crispin Porter + Bogusky, she helped strengthen work for numerous brands, including Microsoft’s worldwide Windows 7 and American Express’s Small Business Saturday campaigns, both from initial development through launch, as well as the Domino’s Pizza Tracker.

Her work on Baked In, the business book by John Winsor and Alex Bogusky, began by accident. Pearce spotted the manuscript shortly before it was due to print, realized it needed another editorial pass and reedited the book in five days. As the sole editor on 17 accounts at Sterling-Rice Group, she brought strategic and editorial thinking into the development of advertising and marketing rather than treating editing as a final checkpoint. She later applied that approach in highly regulated financial-services and pharmaceutical work, where language had to perform while meeting legal, medical and regulatory requirements.

“Strong language can’t rescue a weak idea,” said Pearce. “The work is in seeing where an idea loses its strength and bringing the strategy, thinking and language into alignment.”

Miles brings more than two decades of creative expertise across advertising, entertainment, technology, sports and consumer brands, with work recognized by major international creative awards.

He created “One Game. One Love.,” the NBA’s first marketing campaign geared specifically toward international fans, which ran in 43 countries and territories and 10 languages. He also wrote the Reese’s Puffs Rap for General Mills in 2009. The campaign later found a second life online, with more than 239,000 TikTok videos using the rap by February 2022, and was rebooted in 2026 by The Martin Agency in a branded entertainment video featuring GloRilla.

Earlier in his career, Miles and creative partner Terry Taylor developed a campaign in just two-and-a-half days that helped DMB&B New York win the Burger King account—an account move The New York Times described at the time as the biggest in advertising history. His work has also been recognized internationally, including finalist honors in MoveOn.org’s “Obama in 30 Seconds” competition.

“A big idea has to do more than get attention,” said Miles. “It has to give people something worth remembering. That’s where story becomes strategy: the idea shapes everything that comes after it.”

TNA’s work spans brand narrative, thought leadership, executive communications, advertising, marketing, digital experiences, complex enterprise content, proposals, pitches and personal branding.

To learn more or connect with The Narrative Authority, visit thenarrativeauthority.com.