--- title: "The Company That Published Fake Journalists in Sports Illustrated is Collapsing Dramatically After Massive AI Rebrand" description: "Paradium.AI, formerly known as The Arena Group, announced staggering Q3 losses yesterday amid its \"all in\" AI pivot." date: "2026-11-10" modified: "2026-11-10" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/company-fake-journalists-sports-illustrated-collapsing-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" --- # The Company That Published Fake Journalists in Sports Illustrated is Collapsing Dramatically After Massive AI Rebrand ![A photo illustration of robot hands typing.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* Paradium.AI, the recently-rebranded media company formerly known as The Arena Group, announced staggering third-quarter losses yesterday as it continues to go "all in" on AI. Paradium's stock has been declining for years, though it experienced a drop of about 14 percent today after the company revealed that it had sustained a net loss of $3.6 million in the Q3 of 2026 — a dramatic shift from the same quarter last year, when its revenue was around 30 percent higher and it logged a $[6.9 million net profit](). Trading around $.077, the company's shares are now firmly in the realm of penny stocks. The company's quarterly report was the first since its [August rebrand]() from The Arena Group to Paradium, a move that the company claimed marked a transition to becoming a "publicly traded AI company." As part of its rebrand, the company announced its purchase of InfoSentience, an AI company described on Paradium's homepage as a product that "turns live structured data into accurate, on-brand stories" to deliver "AI content at scale, running in production today." It also launched an AI-powered video-editing and distribution tool called Cutter Studios. Paradium's media portfolio includes its namesake brand *Parade* as well as *TheStreet*, *Athlon Sports*, *College Spun Media*, and *Men's Journal*, among others. Per its press release, Paradium said its grim results were the result of industry-wide challenges like poor traffic and distribution struggles — difficulties, ironically, that have been driven largely by AI's transformation of the digital world and the platforms that publishers have long relied on. "Third-quarter results were driven by lower referral traffic, including from Google Discover, reflecting the challenging distribution environment affecting digital publishers across the industry," reads the press release, which further noted that "these traffic reductions drove a decline in advertising revenue." Beyond distribution, the company added that it's battling a "$1.3 million reversal of an employee retention tax credit asset that was disallowed." As it cited traffic collapse as its core woe, however, Paradium happily flagged "increased article volume" as an "operational highlight," saying that it had used AI to churn out 15 percent more articles than it had in Q2 with the help of InfoSentience and Cutter Studios. (It also flagged that it had "launched \[a\] purpose-built, AI-enabled tool for content creation, editing and management in Paradium's CMS.") In a statement, Paradium CEO Paul Edmondson struck an optimistic tone, declaring that "we continue to see tremendous opportunity in the age of AI, and we're all in." "While retaining referral traffic remains part of our focus, our real momentum is powered by tools like Cutter Studios and InfoSentience, which are already increasing output and efficiency," Edmondon's statement continued. He also pointed to "recent CMS updates" and the "upcoming launch" of a new "AI task management system built for content management and development" called Tablation, saying that all of these tools will enable Paradium to "rapidly adapt to the future of modern publishing." Paradium's continued focus on AI for publishing is fascinating in light of its not-so-distant history with AI scandal. Back in November 2023, a [*Futurism* investigation revealed that]() the company, then still called The Arena Group, had published AI-generated content bylined by fake AI writers on the website of *Sports Illustrated*, which at the time was the company's crown jewel. (The content had been provided by a third-party contractor, [AdVon Commerce](), which published similar content at other partners across the media ecosystem.) Several [executives](), including [then-CEO Ross Levinsohn](), were fired soon after, and The Arena Group ultimately [lost control]() of the *Sports Illustrated* brand. Fast forward a few years, the company is now called Paradium, and AI content is central to its business model. Paradium isn't the only media company to suffer bleak downturns amid all-in AI pivots: *BuzzFeed*, once a giant of the content economy of the 2010s, also [reported somber Q3 results]() as its own controversial AI push has yet to pay off. **More on Paradium's history:** *[Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [Remember the Publisher That Put Fake Writers in Sports Illustrated? It Just Rebranded as an AI Company]() - [The Company That Published Fake AI Authors at Sports Illustrated Just Lost the Whole Magazine]() - [Top Execs at Sports Illustrated’s Publisher Fired After AI Debacle]() - [Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers]() - [Sports Illustrated Publisher Fires CEO After AI Scandal]() - [Sports Illustrated Lays Off Journalists After Announcing Pivot to AI Content]() - [Sports Illustrated Publisher Laying Off Staff After AI Scandal]() - [Sports Illustrated Just Deleted Every Article by One of Its Writers After Accusation of AI Plagiarism]()