Newsweek vs WIRED

Podcast: The Hardest KPI in Political Advertising

An AdExchanger Talks podcast episode features Mark Jablonowski, CEO of DSPolitical, discussing the unique challenges of measuring political advertising where the primary KPI is an election outcome decided by secret ballot. DSPolitical, which positions itself as a “meta DSP,” combines offline voter data, privacy-compliant audience modeling, multi-bidder activation and unified reporting. Jablonowski notes that Connected TV is a growing channel for political spend but is often bought with a broadcast mindset rather than using CTV’s targeting and measurement capabilities. He also highlights political advertisers’ advanced CRM and voter-file practices and expresses greater concern about organically spreading disinformation than AI deepfakes.

• Mark Jablonowski is the CEO of DSPolitical.
• DSPolitical describes itself as a “meta DSP” and onboards offline voter data to build privacy-compliant audience segments.
• DSPolitical activates audiences through multiple bidders and consolidates results into a single reporting layer.

Newsweek About page reveals leadership and editorial restructuring

Changes include Shazia Haq moving from Senior Editorial Operations Manager to Director of Audience, Brian Lim and Connie Sideras swapping roles, new News Directors Samantha Beech and Jason Lemon, and several editorial title and role changes.

Newsweek Traffic Falls 75%; Revenue Nears $100M

Newsweek experienced a nearly 75% decline in readership year-over-year, but CEO Dev Pragad says the company is on pace to surpass $100 million in revenue for the first time in its 93-year history. Publishing revenue is expected to decline 20–25% this year, but newly built businesses—internally called Nexus (B2B: rankings and events) and Adprime (a healthcare-focused DSP acquired in June 2025)—have grown quickly enough to offset that drop. Adprime is projected to more than triple revenue from $14.8M to north of $40M and could account for roughly 40% of company revenue. Newsweek forecasts at least 10% revenue growth in 2026 (up from ~3% in 2025), is expanding non-programmatic video and events revenue, and maintains a free newsletter audience just under 2 million. The company remains cautious about future search-distribution risks from Google’s AI-generated results.

• Newsweek’s site traffic declined nearly 75% in a single year.
• Newsweek is on pace to surpass $100 million in annual revenue for the first time.
• Publishing division revenue is expected to decline 20%–25% this year, per CEO Dev Pragad.

CERN Creates Smallest Quark-Gluon Plasma Drop, Reveals Lighter Cores

Scientists at CERN have created the smallest drop of quark-gluon plasma (QGP), the primordial matter that filled the early universe, by colliding light nuclei such as oxygen-16 and neon-20 at near-light speeds. Previously, such exotic states required heavy nuclei like lead or xenon. The ATLAS collaboration detected jet quenching, a clear sign of QGP formation, and the Niels Bohr Institute deduced the geometric shapes of the colliding nuclei from particle flow patterns. Oxygen nuclei appear round, while neon resemble a bowling pin. The findings open new avenues for studying nuclear structure and the strong interaction at high energies, and future experiments will use even lighter elements like helium-4 to probe the limits of QGP formation.

• Scientists at CERN created a quark-gluon plasma using collisions of light nuclei (oxygen-16 and neon-20), contrary to previous belief that heavy nuclei are required.
• The ATLAS collaboration observed jet quenching, a key indicator of quark-gluon plasma formation, in the collision data.
• Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute used particle motion patterns to deduce the shapes of the involved nuclei: oxygen appears round, neon resembles an asymmetric bowling pin.

Why People Mistake Em-Dashes for AI Writing

Storytelling Edge's newsletter explores why readers increasingly associate em-dashes and polished prose with AI-generated writing. It references a Wired story on a growing 'anti-AI literary counterculture' in which writers avoid AI conventions like negative parallelism and deliberately introduce small mistakes to signal human authorship. The piece cites an Economist study showing ChatGPT now rarely uses em-dashes, while Claude still uses them more than human writers. Linguist Gretchen McCulloch explains the linguistic concept of enregisterment, linking the em-dash's stigma to learned associations rather than measurable overuse by AI. The newsletter also discusses Substack's AI-detection feature built with Pangram, citing University of Chicago and UPenn studies that claim over 99% accuracy, and notes Pangram CEO Max Sperro's unclaimed $100 bounty for false positives. The author concludes that writers should develop a distinct personal voice rather than simply avoiding AI tells.

• Wired reported on a growing 'anti-AI literary counterculture' in which writers avoid AI writing conventions and deliberately leave mistakes to prove human authorship.
• The Economist published a study finding ChatGPT barely uses em-dashes, while Claude uses them more frequently than human writers.
• Substack introduced an AI-detection feature in partnership with Pangram to scan posts for AI-generated text, aiming to fight 'Claude-fishing'.

Instagram Restricts Reach of Undisclosed AI-Generated Profiles

Instagram has updated its policy by renaming the 'AI Creator' label to the 'AI-generated Profile' label, making it mandatory for accounts depicting fully AI-generated personas. While creators using AI solely for minor content editing or caption polishing are exempt, accounts representing AI personas must disclose this or face severe penalties, including reduced organic reach and exclusion from non-follower recommendations. Creators can activate the label within their profile settings and appeal automated flags via their Account Status. This enforcement responds to growing user backlash over deceptive AI influencers promoting health supplements and dating apps. Concurrently, the update follows parent company Meta's recent $18 billion settlement with 29 U.S. states over teen safety, which has prompted stricter usage controls across Facebook and Instagram to protect users from deceptive and harmful online experiences.

• Instagram renamed its 'AI Creator' label to the mandatory 'AI-generated Profile' label to identify accounts representing fully AI-generated personas.
• Accounts failing to disclose AI personas face restricted organic reach and recommendation bans, while minor AI edits like retouching and captioning are exempt.
• Creators can manually activate the label under profile settings, which displays it in bios and content, and can appeal automated flags via Account Status.