Q2 2026 ACCESS Newswire Inc Earnings Call

Forrest MacConnell: Welcome to ACCESS Newswire's Q2 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Forrest MacConnell, and I'm a Product Manager here at ACCESS Newswire on the IR product team. I've been with the company since 2021, initially joining what was then our onboarding team, which has since evolved into our customer experience team. Today, I lead our Investor relations products and services across websites, newsrooms, and shareholder engagement, supporting hundreds of our public company customers, as well as emerging companies preparing to enter the public markets. Additionally, my team and I also manage the New York Stock Exchange Subsidiary Whistleblower product and implementation for some of the world's largest and most recognizable brands.

Speaker #1: Welcome to ACCESS Newswire's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Forrest McConnell, and I'm a product manager here at ACCESS Newswire on the IR product team.

Speaker #1: I've been with the company since 2021, initially joining what was then our onboarding team, which has since evolved into our customer experience team. Today, I lead our investor relations products and services across websites, newsrooms, and shareholder engagement, supporting hundreds of our public company customers, as well as emerging companies preparing to enter the public markets.

Speaker #1: Additionally, my team and I also manage the New York Stock Exchange subsidy whistleblower product and implementation for some of the world's largest and most recognizable brands.

Forrest McConnell: My time here at ACCESS has been incredibly rewarding, and I couldn't be more excited about what's ahead for our customers, for our company, and for my team as we continue to grow and evolve our products and services. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made in this conference call concerning future revenues, results from operations, financial position, markets, economic conditions, product releases, partnerships, and any other statements that may be construed as predictions of future performance or events are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties as they may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are provided for informational purposes and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, GAAP results.

Forrest MacConnell: My time here at ACCESS has been incredibly rewarding, and I couldn't be more excited about what's ahead for our customers, for our company, and for my team as we continue to grow and evolve our products and services. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made in this conference call concerning future revenues, results from operations, financial position, markets, economic conditions, product releases, partnerships, and any other statements that may be construed as predictions of future performance or events are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties as they may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are provided for informational purposes and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, GAAP results.

Speaker #1: My time here at ACCESS has been incredibly rewarding, and I couldn't be more excited about what's ahead—for our customers, for our company, and for my team—as we continue to grow and evolve our products and services.

Speaker #1: Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made in this conference call concerning future revenues, results from operations, financial position, markets, economic conditions, product releases, partnerships, and any other statements that may be construed as predictions of future performance or events are forward-looking statements.

Speaker #1: These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, as they may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.

Speaker #1: We will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are provided for informational purposes and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, GAAP results.

Forrest McConnell: With that, I'll turn the call over to our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Balbirnie, and our Chief Financial Officer, Steve Knerr.

Forrest MacConnell: With that, I'll turn the call over to our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Balbirnie, and our Chief Financial Officer, Steve Knerr.

Speaker #1: With that, I'll turn the call over to our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Balbirnie, and our Chief Financial Officer, Steven Knerr.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Thank you, Forrest, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss our Q2 2026 results. Let me start with the headline number. Q2 revenues was $5.6 million, up 5% sequentially from $5.3 million in Q1, and essentially consistent with Q2 of last year. Core press release revenue increased 2% year over year, which tells us that the underlying engine of this business remains healthy. That was offset, however, by lower revenues from our webcast business, where we saw fewer virtual annual meetings and less reseller activity. I want to spend a moment on where we made up real progress. Average ARR per subscription customer was $12,718 at the end of the quarter, up from $11,039 a year ago, a 15% increase and another quarter of ARR growth.

Brian Balbirnie: Thank you, Forrest, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss our Q2 2026 results. Let me start with the headline number. Q2 revenues was $5.6 million, up 5% sequentially from $5.3 million in Q1, and essentially consistent with Q2 of last year. Core press release revenue increased 2% year over year, which tells us that the underlying engine of this business remains healthy. That was offset, however, by lower revenues from our webcast business, where we saw fewer virtual annual meetings and less reseller activity. I want to spend a moment on where we made up real progress. Average ARR per subscription customer was $12,718 at the end of the quarter, up from $11,039 a year ago, a 15% increase and another quarter of ARR growth.

Speaker #2: Thank you, Forrest, and good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining us to discuss our second quarter 2026 results. Let me start with the headline number.

Speaker #2: Second quarter revenues were $5.6 million, up 5% sequentially from $5.3 million in the first quarter, and essentially consistent with the second quarter of last year.

Speaker #2: Corporate price release revenue increased 2% year-over-year, which tells us that the underlying engine of this business remains healthy. That was offset, however, by lower revenues from our webcast business, where we saw fewer virtual annual meetings and less reseller activity.

Speaker #2: I want to spend a moment on where we made up real progress, average ARR per subscription customer was $12,718 at the end of the quarter, up from $11,039 a year ago.

Speaker #2: A 15% increase and another quarter of ARR growth. This is the clearest evidence that our platform strategy, moving customers onto higher value tiers, continues to work.

Brian R. Balbirnie: This is the clearest evidence that our platform strategy, moving customers onto higher value tiers, continues to work. That progress is being driven by the products that we built and have brought to market over the last 90 days. Our social monitoring platform and our new Insight and Analytics report are both live, and early adoption is encouraging. We expect to release several more products before year's end, and our focus is now turning that innovation into subscriber and revenue growth in our subscription business. Steve is going to walk you through the numbers in detail, and then I'd like to touch on a few topics from the H1 of this year and what our priorities are for the H2 of the year. Steve?

Brian Balbirnie: This is the clearest evidence that our platform strategy, moving customers onto higher value tiers, continues to work. That progress is being driven by the products that we built and have brought to market over the last 90 days. Our social monitoring platform and our new Insight and Analytics report are both live, and early adoption is encouraging. We expect to release several more products before year's end, and our focus is now turning that innovation into subscriber and revenue growth in our subscription business. Steve is going to walk you through the numbers in detail, and then I'd like to touch on a few topics from the H1 of this year and what our priorities are for the H2 of the year. Steve?

Speaker #2: That progress is being driven by the products that we built and have brought to market over the last 90 days. Our social monitoring platform and our new insights and analytics report are both live, and early adoption is encouraging.

Speaker #2: We expect to release several more products before year's end, and our focus is now turning that innovation into subscriber and revenue growth in our subscription business.

Speaker #2: Steve is going to walk you through the numbers in detail, and then I'd like to touch on a few topics from the first half of this year and what our priorities are for the second half of the year.

Speaker #2: Steve?

Steven Knerr: Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. I will now take you through the Q2 and H1 2026 financial results. Total revenue for Q2 2026 was $5.6 million, an increase of approximately $291,000, or 5%, compared to Q1 2026, and essentially unchanged compared to Q2 2025. The sequential increase was primarily driven by a 10% increase in volume from our core press release business, reflecting the seasonal pattern we typically see following Q1. Core press release revenue increased 2% compared to Q2 2025, while lower revenue from our pro plan customers partially offset that growth. Webcasting revenue was also lower compared to Q2 2025 due to fewer virtual annual meetings and reseller activity. For the first six months of 2026, total revenue was $10.9 million, down $152,000, or 1%, from $11.1 million in the H1 of 2025.

Steve Knerr: Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. I will now take you through the Q2 and H1 2026 financial results. Total revenue for Q2 2026 was $5.6 million, an increase of approximately $291,000, or 5%, compared to Q1 2026, and essentially unchanged compared to Q2 2025. The sequential increase was primarily driven by a 10% increase in volume from our core press release business, reflecting the seasonal pattern we typically see following Q1. Core press release revenue increased 2% compared to Q2 2025, while lower revenue from our pro plan customers partially offset that growth. Webcasting revenue was also lower compared to Q2 2025 due to fewer virtual annual meetings and reseller activity. For the first six months of 2026, total revenue was $10.9 million, down $152,000, or 1%, from $11.1 million in the H1 of 2025.

Speaker #3: Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. I will now take you through the second quarter and first half 2026 financial results. Total revenue for the second quarter of 2026 was $5.6 million, an increase of approximately $291,000 or 5% compared to Q1 2026, and essentially unchanged compared to Q2 2025.

Speaker #3: The sequential increase was primarily driven by a 10% increase in volume from our core press release business, reflecting the seasonal pattern we typically see following the first quarter.

Speaker #3: Core price release revenue increased 2% compared to Q2 2025, while lower revenue from our Pro Plan customers partially offset that growth. Webcasting revenue was also lower compared to Q2 2025 due to fewer virtual annual meetings and reseller activity.

Speaker #3: For the first six months of 2026, total revenue was $10.9 million, down $152,000, or 1%, from $11.1 million in the first half of 2025.

Speaker #3: The year-over-year decline was primarily attributable to lower webcasting and Pro Plan revenue. Importantly, revenue from our core press release business increased 1% for the first half of 2026, compared to the same period last year.

Steven Knerr: The year-over-year decline was primarily attributable to lower webcasting and pro plan revenue. Importantly, revenue from our core press release business increased 1% for the H1 of 2026 compared to the same period last year. Gross margin for Q2 2026 was $4.1 million, or 73% of revenue, compared to $4 million or 74% of revenue in Q1 2026, and $4.3 million or 76% of revenue in Q2 2025. The H1 2026 gross margin was $8.1 million, or 74% of revenue, compared to $8.6 million or 77% of revenue in the H1 of 2025. The year-over-year decline in gross margin percentage primarily reflects higher press release distribution costs from a combination of new partners, price increases from existing partners, and additional usage under variable contracts.

Steve Knerr: The year-over-year decline was primarily attributable to lower webcasting and pro plan revenue. Importantly, revenue from our core press release business increased 1% for the H1 of 2026 compared to the same period last year. Gross margin for Q2 2026 was $4.1 million, or 73% of revenue, compared to $4 million or 74% of revenue in Q1 2026, and $4.3 million or 76% of revenue in Q2 2025. The H1 2026 gross margin was $8.1 million, or 74% of revenue, compared to $8.6 million or 77% of revenue in the H1 of 2025. The year-over-year decline in gross margin percentage primarily reflects higher press release distribution costs from a combination of new partners, price increases from existing partners, and additional usage under variable contracts.

Speaker #3: Gross margin for Q2 2026 was $4.1 million, or 73% of revenue, compared to $4 million or 74% of revenue in Q1 2026, and $4.3 million or 76% of revenue in Q2 2025, the first half of 2026 gross margin was 8.1 million, or 74% of revenue, compared to 8.6 million or 77% of revenue in the first half of 2025.

Speaker #3: The year-over-year decline in gross margin percentage primarily reflects higher price release distribution costs from a combination of new partners, price increases from existing partners, and additional usage under variable contracts.

Steven Knerr: As Brian will discuss, we have implemented initiatives designed to reduce cost of revenues by approximately $150,000 in the back half of the year. Moving to operating expenses. Total operating expenses were $4.4 million in Q2 2026, down slightly from $4.5 million in Q2 2025. For the first six months, total operating expenses were $9.1 million, down approximately $0.4 million, or 4%, from $9.5 million in the first half of 2025. We continue to balance cost discipline with targeted investment in areas we believe could support future growth. General and administrative expenses were $1.35 million in Q2 2026, down $402,000 or 23% year over year. For the first half of 2026, G&A expenses were $3.1 million, down $574,000 or 15%.

Steve Knerr: As Brian will discuss, we have implemented initiatives designed to reduce cost of revenues by approximately $150,000 in the back half of the year. Moving to operating expenses. Total operating expenses were $4.4 million in Q2 2026, down slightly from $4.5 million in Q2 2025. For the first six months, total operating expenses were $9.1 million, down approximately $0.4 million, or 4%, from $9.5 million in the first half of 2025. We continue to balance cost discipline with targeted investment in areas we believe could support future growth. General and administrative expenses were $1.35 million in Q2 2026, down $402,000 or 23% year over year. For the first half of 2026, G&A expenses were $3.1 million, down $574,000 or 15%.

Speaker #3: As Brian will discuss, we have implemented initiatives designed to reduce cost of revenues by approximately $150,000 in the back half of the year. Moving to operating expenses, total operating expenses were $4.4 million in Q2 2026, down slightly from $4.5 million in Q2 2025.

Speaker #3: For the first six months, total operating expenses were $9.1 million, down approximately $0.4 million, or 4%, from $9.5 million in the first half of 2025, as we continued to balance cost discipline with targeted investment in areas we believe could support future growth.

Speaker #3: General and administrative expenses were $1.35 million in Q2 2026, down $402,000 or 23% year-over-year. For the first half of 2026, G&A expenses were $3.1 million, down $574,000 or 15%.

Speaker #3: The decrease reflects lower non-recurring expenses, stock-based compensation, and bad debt expense, as well as lower insurance and office costs following the sale of the compliance business and our move to remote work environment.

Steven Knerr: The decrease reflects lower non-recurring expenses, stock-based compensation, and bad debt expense, as well as lower insurance and office costs following the sale of the compliance business and our move to a remote work environment. Sales and marketing expense was $1.9 million in Q2 2026, up $427,000, or 29%, compared to Q2 2025. For the first half of 2026, sales and marketing expense was $3.6 million, up $514,000 or 17%. This increase reflects our deliberate investment in advertising and trade shows as we work to convert our product innovation into customer and revenue growth. Product development expense was $533,000 in Q2 2026, down $122,000, or 19%, year over year, and $1.1 million for the first half of 2026, down $295,000 or 21%. The decrease was primarily due to higher capitalized software costs.

Steve Knerr: The decrease reflects lower non-recurring expenses, stock-based compensation, and bad debt expense, as well as lower insurance and office costs following the sale of the compliance business and our move to a remote work environment. Sales and marketing expense was $1.9 million in Q2 2026, up $427,000, or 29%, compared to Q2 2025. For the first half of 2026, sales and marketing expense was $3.6 million, up $514,000 or 17%. This increase reflects our deliberate investment in advertising and trade shows as we work to convert our product innovation into customer and revenue growth. Product development expense was $533,000 in Q2 2026, down $122,000, or 19%, year over year, and $1.1 million for the first half of 2026, down $295,000 or 21%. The decrease was primarily due to higher capitalized software costs.

Speaker #3: Sales and marketing expense was $1.9 million in Q2 2026, up $427,000 or 29% compared to Q2 2025, for the first half of 2026. Sales and marketing expense was $3.6 million, up $514,000 or 17%.

Speaker #3: This increase reflects our deliberate investment in advertising and trade shows, as we work to convert our product innovation into customer and revenue growth. Product development expense was $533,000 in Q2 2026, down $122,000 or 19% year-over-year, and $1.1 million for the first half of 2026, down $295,000 or 21%.

Speaker #3: The decrease was primarily due to higher capitalized software costs. We capitalized $110,000 of software development costs in Q2 2026, and $209,000 for the first six months of 2026, compared to $0 and $23,000, respectively, in the comparable periods of last year.

Steven Knerr: We capitalized $110,000 of software development costs in Q2 2026 and $209,000 for the first six months of 2026, compared to zero and $23,000 respectively in the comparable periods of last year. The costs mostly reflect the investment we made in our social monitoring and Insight and Analytics enhancements that we rolled out during the second quarter, as well as some additional enhancements Brian will speak more about. Operating loss for Q2 2026 was $307,000, compared to $249,000 during the second quarter of 2025. For the first half of 2026, operating loss was $1 million, compared to $926,000 in the first half of 2025. The year-over-year change was primarily driven by lower gross margin, partially offset by lower operating expenses.

Steve Knerr: We capitalized $110,000 of software development costs in Q2 2026 and $209,000 for the first six months of 2026, compared to zero and $23,000 respectively in the comparable periods of last year. The costs mostly reflect the investment we made in our social monitoring and Insight and Analytics enhancements that we rolled out during the second quarter, as well as some additional enhancements Brian will speak more about. Operating loss for Q2 2026 was $307,000, compared to $249,000 during the second quarter of 2025. For the first half of 2026, operating loss was $1 million, compared to $926,000 in the first half of 2025. The year-over-year change was primarily driven by lower gross margin, partially offset by lower operating expenses.

Speaker #3: The cost mostly reflect the investment we made in our social monitoring and insight and analytics enhancements that we rolled out during the second quarter, as well as some additional enhancements Brian will speak more about.

Speaker #3: Operating loss for Q2 2026 was $307,000, compared to $249,000 during the second quarter of 2025. For the first half of 2026, operating loss was $1 million, compared to $926,000 in the first half of 2025.

Speaker #3: The year-over-year change was primarily driven by lower gross margin, partially offset by lower operating expenses. On a gap basis, net loss from continuing operations was $354,000 or 0.09 per diluted share for Q2 2026, compared to $239,000 or 0.06 per diluted share during the second quarter of 2025.

Steven Knerr: On a GAAP basis, net loss from continuing operations was $354,000, or $0.09 per diluted share for Q2 2026, compared to $239,000, or $0.06 per diluted share during the second quarter of 2025. For the first six months, net loss from continuing operations was $965,000, or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to $1 million, or $0.26 per diluted share in the first half of 2025. On a non-GAAP basis, EBITDA was $0.5 million, or 8% of revenue for the second quarter of 2026, compared to $0.5 million or 9% of revenue during the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was $0.6 million or 11% of revenue for Q2 2026, compared to $0.8 million or 15% of revenue in Q2 2025.

Steve Knerr: On a GAAP basis, net loss from continuing operations was $354,000, or $0.09 per diluted share for Q2 2026, compared to $239,000, or $0.06 per diluted share during the second quarter of 2025. For the first six months, net loss from continuing operations was $965,000, or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to $1 million, or $0.26 per diluted share in the first half of 2025. On a non-GAAP basis, EBITDA was $0.5 million, or 8% of revenue for the second quarter of 2026, compared to $0.5 million or 9% of revenue during the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was $0.6 million or 11% of revenue for Q2 2026, compared to $0.8 million or 15% of revenue in Q2 2025.

Speaker #3: For the first six months, net loss from continuing operations was $965,000 or 25 cents per diluted share, compared to $1 million or 26 cents per diluted share in the first half of 2025.

Speaker #3: On a non-GAAP basis, EBITDA was $0.5 million, or 8% of revenue, for the second quarter of 2026, compared to $0.5 million, or 9% of revenue, during the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was $0.6 million, or 11% of revenue, for Q2 2026, compared to $0.8 million, or 15% of revenue, in Q2 2025.

Speaker #3: Non-gap net income was 0.3 million or 0.8 per diluted share during the second quarter of 2026, compared to 0.6 million or 14 cents per diluted share in the prior year quarter.

Steven Knerr: Non-GAAP net income was $0.3 million or $0.08 per diluted share during Q2 2026, compared to $0.6 million or $0.14 per diluted share in the prior year quarter. Adjusted free cash flow was $50,000 for Q2 2026 compared to $250,000 in Q2 2025. For H1 2026, EBITDA amounted to $0.5 million, or 4% of revenue, consistent with H1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.2 million or 11% of revenue, compared to $1.4 million or 13% of revenue in the prior year period. Non-GAAP net income was $0.7 million or $0.18 per diluted share, compared to $0.8 million or $0.20 per diluted share last year. Adjusted free cash flow was $1 million for H1 2026, compared to $1.2 million for H1 2025. Cash flow from operations was $173,000 in Q2 2026 compared to $135,000 in Q2 2025.

Steve Knerr: Non-GAAP net income was $0.3 million or $0.08 per diluted share during Q2 2026, compared to $0.6 million or $0.14 per diluted share in the prior year quarter. Adjusted free cash flow was $50,000 for Q2 2026 compared to $250,000 in Q2 2025. For H1 2026, EBITDA amounted to $0.5 million, or 4% of revenue, consistent with H1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.2 million or 11% of revenue, compared to $1.4 million or 13% of revenue in the prior year period. Non-GAAP net income was $0.7 million or $0.18 per diluted share, compared to $0.8 million or $0.20 per diluted share last year. Adjusted free cash flow was $1 million for H1 2026, compared to $1.2 million for H1 2025. Cash flow from operations was $173,000 in Q2 2026 compared to $135,000 in Q2 2025.

Speaker #3: Adjusted free cash flow was $50,000 for Q2 2026, compared to $250,000 in Q2 2025. For the first half of 2026, EBITDA amounted to 0.5 million or 4% of revenue, consistent with the first half of 2025.

Speaker #3: Adjusted EBITDA was $1.2 million or 11% of revenue, compared to $1.4 million or 13% of revenue in the prior year period. Non-gap net income was 0.7 million or 18 cents per diluted share, compared to 0.8 million or 20 cents per diluted share last year.

Speaker #3: Adjusted free cash flow was $1 million for the first half of 2026, compared to $1.2 million for the first half of 2025. Cash flow from operations was $173,000 in Q2 2026, compared to $135,000 in Q2 2025.

Speaker #3: We ended the quarter with just under $3 million in the bank, and Brian will talk a little further about our share repurchase activity which was ongoing during the quarter.

Steven Knerr: We ended the quarter with just under $3 million in the bank, and Brian will talk a little further about our share repurchase activity, which was ongoing during the quarter. The deferred revenue balance, which we expect to recognize over the next 12 months, was $5.1 million as of 30 June 2026, compared to $5.3 million at 31 December 2025. As we enter H2 of the year, our financial priorities remain consistent. Maintain operating discipline, invest selectively behind the products and go-to-market initiatives that can drive revenue and subscription growth, and continue to strengthen the economics of the business. The progress in subscription ARR per customer continued positive Adjusted EBITDA and our focus on cost efficiencies gives us a solid foundation as we work to improve top-line performance. With that, I will turn it back over to Brian.

Steve Knerr: We ended the quarter with just under $3 million in the bank, and Brian will talk a little further about our share repurchase activity, which was ongoing during the quarter. The deferred revenue balance, which we expect to recognize over the next 12 months, was $5.1 million as of 30 June 2026, compared to $5.3 million at 31 December 2025. As we enter H2 of the year, our financial priorities remain consistent. Maintain operating discipline, invest selectively behind the products and go-to-market initiatives that can drive revenue and subscription growth, and continue to strengthen the economics of the business. The progress in subscription ARR per customer continued positive Adjusted EBITDA and our focus on cost efficiencies gives us a solid foundation as we work to improve top-line performance. With that, I will turn it back over to Brian.

Speaker #3: The deferred revenue balance, which we expect to recognize over the next 12 months, was $5.1 million as of June 30, 2026, compared to $5.3 million at December 31, 2025.

Speaker #3: As we enter the second half of the year, our financial priorities remain consistent. Maintain operating discipline and invest selectively behind the products and go-to-market initiatives that can drive revenue and subscription growth, and continue to strengthen the economics of the business.

Speaker #3: The progress in subscription ARR per customer continued positive adjusted EBITDA, and our focus on cost efficiencies gives us a solid foundation as we work to improve top-line performance.

Speaker #3: With that, I will turn it back over to Brian.

Speaker #1: Thanks, Steve. To expand on a few points Steve mentioned, let me try to tie together two actionable results that you will see in the back half of this year, as well as the things that we have planned on our radar.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Thanks, Steve. To expand a few points of what Steve mentioned, let me try to tie two actionable results that you will see in the back half of this year, as well as the things that we have planned on our radar. First, I want to begin by discussing a little bit about our capital allocation, specifically our share repurchase plan, which has continued nicely this quarter. We repurchased 40,000 shares for a little over $300,000 in the quarter, pushing our total repurchase results since December 2025 to 90,000 shares or $700,000 as of today. This leaves us roughly $300,000 in the plan to be used here this quarter. The buyback has resulted in us retiring over 2% of our common shares outstanding to date.

Brian Balbirnie: Thanks, Steve. To expand a few points of what Steve mentioned, let me try to tie two actionable results that you will see in the back half of this year, as well as the things that we have planned on our radar. First, I want to begin by discussing a little bit about our capital allocation, specifically our share repurchase plan, which has continued nicely this quarter. We repurchased 40,000 shares for a little over $300,000 in the quarter, pushing our total repurchase results since December 2025 to 90,000 shares or $700,000 as of today. This leaves us roughly $300,000 in the plan to be used here this quarter. The buyback has resulted in us retiring over 2% of our common shares outstanding to date.

Speaker #1: But first, I want to begin by discussing a little bit about our capital allocation. Specifically, our share repurchase plan, which has continued nicely this quarter.

Speaker #1: We repurchased 40,000 shares for a little over $300,000 in the quarter, pushing our total repurchase results since December 25 to 90,000 shares, or $700,000 as of today.

Speaker #1: This leaves us roughly $300,000 in the plan to be used here this quarter. The buyback has resulted in us retiring over 2% of our common shares outstanding to date.

Speaker #1: Once the plan is completed, the board of directors will review the company's performance, share price, and liquidity. If all continues to align, we will institute another repurchase plan.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Once the plan is completed, the board of directors will review the company's performance, share price, and liquidity, and if all continues to align, we will institute another repurchase plan. It is my belief that we will continue to be active in buybacks as we continue to run the business with the cost discipline you have seen from us here this year, which has resulted in a 23% reduction in G&A this quarter. Additionally, as Steve mentioned, we have also undertaken steps to implement cost savings initiatives that we expect to reduce cost of revenue by approximately $150,000 in the back half of this year, or 125 to 150 basis point improvement. Cost-cutting is not our singular motive. The cost of revenue savings is being deployed around the business, specifically in sales and marketing, with our new hires to fuel customer acquisition and top-line revenue growth for the future.

Brian Balbirnie: Once the plan is completed, the board of directors will review the company's performance, share price, and liquidity, and if all continues to align, we will institute another repurchase plan. It is my belief that we will continue to be active in buybacks as we continue to run the business with the cost discipline you have seen from us here this year, which has resulted in a 23% reduction in G&A this quarter. Additionally, as Steve mentioned, we have also undertaken steps to implement cost savings initiatives that we expect to reduce cost of revenue by approximately $150,000 in the back half of this year, or 125 to 150 basis point improvement. Cost-cutting is not our singular motive. The cost of revenue savings is being deployed around the business, specifically in sales and marketing, with our new hires to fuel customer acquisition and top-line revenue growth for the future.

Speaker #1: It is my belief that we will continue to be active in buybacks as we continue to run the business, with the cost discipline you have seen from us here this year.

Speaker #1: Which has resulted in a 23% reduction in G&A this quarter. Additionally, as Steve mentioned, we have also undertaken steps to implement cost savings initiatives that we expect to reduce cost of revenue by approximately $150,000 in the back half of this year, or $125 to $150 basis point improvement.

Speaker #1: Cost cutting is not our singular motive. The cost of revenue savings is being deployed around the business, specifically in sales and marketing, with our new hires to fuel customer acquisition and top-line revenue growth for the future.

Speaker #1: Something that we will watch and work hard to deliver both in growth and customer counts at the same time maintain or reduce our customer acquisition costs.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Something that we will watch and work hard to deliver both in growth and customer counts. At the same time, maintain or reduce our customer acquisition costs. Having the incremental gross margin savings and anticipated customer revenue growth will help us also improve to move our gross margins back into the higher 70% range in the back half of the year. We are expecting these new products that will be released the rest of the year, as well as average initial purchase increasing as the two drivers to this expectation. For the quarter, both our social monitoring add-on and our new Kill The Report, now called Insight and Analytics, performed well. Specifically, the new Insight and Analytics is driving average purchases higher, seeing several hundred customers opt to upgrade to this new actionable insight dashboard.

Brian Balbirnie: Something that we will watch and work hard to deliver both in growth and customer counts. At the same time, maintain or reduce our customer acquisition costs. Having the incremental gross margin savings and anticipated customer revenue growth will help us also improve to move our gross margins back into the higher 70% range in the back half of the year. We are expecting these new products that will be released the rest of the year, as well as average initial purchase increasing as the two drivers to this expectation. For the quarter, both our social monitoring add-on and our new Kill The Report, now called Insight and Analytics, performed well. Specifically, the new Insight and Analytics is driving average purchases higher, seeing several hundred customers opt to upgrade to this new actionable insight dashboard.

Speaker #1: Having the incremental gross margin savings and anticipated customer revenue growth will help us also improve to move our gross margins back into the higher 70% range, in the back half of the year.

Speaker #1: We are expecting these new products that will be released the rest of the year, as well as average initial purchase increasing as the two drivers to this expectation.

Speaker #1: For the quarter, both our social monitoring add-on and our new kill the report, now called Insight and Analytics, performed well. Specifically, the new Insight and Analytics is driving average purchases higher, seeing several hundred customers opt to upgrade to this new actionable insight dashboard.

Speaker #1: We have learned a lot in the past few weeks that this report has been available to our customers and intend to continue to push the envelope in leading the industry in report engagement.

Brian R. Balbirnie: We have learned a lot in the past few weeks that this report has been available to our customers and intend to continue to push the envelope in leading the industry in report engagement, brand monitoring, and real-time actionable sentiment. Social monitoring also solidified a missing component of our platform and will help us push our offerings to a broader audience in the future, specifically under some of our brands like PressRelease.com, where customers will be able to begin buying social monitoring for 30 days to try before committing to a full annual subscription. We believe this will help our smaller SMB customers understand and derive value from our platform without the bigger commitment up front. What is coming? We have a full product roadmap for the H2 of the year.

Brian Balbirnie: We have learned a lot in the past few weeks that this report has been available to our customers and intend to continue to push the envelope in leading the industry in report engagement, brand monitoring, and real-time actionable sentiment. Social monitoring also solidified a missing component of our platform and will help us push our offerings to a broader audience in the future, specifically under some of our brands like PressRelease.com, where customers will be able to begin buying social monitoring for 30 days to try before committing to a full annual subscription. We believe this will help our smaller SMB customers understand and derive value from our platform without the bigger commitment up front. What is coming? We have a full product roadmap for the H2 of the year.

Speaker #1: Brand monitoring and real-time actionable sentiment—social monitoring also solidified a missing component of our platform and will help us push our offerings to a broader audience in the future, specifically under some of our brands like PressRelease.com, where customers will be able to begin buying social monitoring for 30 days to try before committing to a full annual subscription.

Speaker #1: We believe this will help our smaller SMB customers understand and derive value from our platform without the bigger commitment upfront. Now, what is coming?

Speaker #1: We have a full product roadmap for the second half of the year. I will try to touch on a few key components, but be sure to be watching for our marketing messaging and press releases to learn more.

Brian R. Balbirnie: I will try to touch on a few key components, but be sure to be watching for our marketing messaging and press releases to learn more. On the investor relations side of the business, we have two products ready in the queue. The first is an extension of our commitment to excellence and really a part of our ACCESS Verified solution that we rolled out earlier this year at no cost to our clients. This is geared towards our reporting and publicly traded customers, whereby they can submit their earnings release or really any financial release into our Access Verified for Financials platform and get back an assurance report. What our platform is looking for is the consistency of financial tables into and with the narrative to be sure that every representation of a financial metric is accurate, crossed, tick, tied, and consistent throughout the document.

Brian Balbirnie: I will try to touch on a few key components, but be sure to be watching for our marketing messaging and press releases to learn more. On the investor relations side of the business, we have two products ready in the queue. The first is an extension of our commitment to excellence and really a part of our ACCESS Verified solution that we rolled out earlier this year at no cost to our clients. This is geared towards our reporting and publicly traded customers, whereby they can submit their earnings release or really any financial release into our Access Verified for Financials platform and get back an assurance report. What our platform is looking for is the consistency of financial tables into and with the narrative to be sure that every representation of a financial metric is accurate, crossed, tick, tied, and consistent throughout the document.

Speaker #1: On the investor relations side of the business, we have two products ready in the queue. The first is an extension of our commitment to excellence, and really a part of our ACCESS Verified solution that we rolled out earlier this year at no cost to our clients.

Speaker #1: This is geared towards our reporting and publicly traded customers, whereby they can submit their earnings release or really any financial release into our ACCESS Verified for financials platform and get back an assurance report.

Speaker #1: What our platform is looking for is the consistency of financial tables into and with the narrative to be sure that every representation of a financial metric is accurate, crossed, ticked tied, and consistent throughout the document.

Speaker #1: We have tested this with hundreds of customers' earnings releases from the past, worked with our investor relations community and audit firms to gather feedback, and are excited to bring this to market this coming week.

Brian R. Balbirnie: We have tested this with hundreds of customers' earnings releases from the past, worked with our investor relations community and audit firms to gather feedback, and are excited to bring this to market this coming week. Second, on the IR product front, we will begin our upgraded ACCESS events platform, where we are upgrading our events workflow technology into and with our ecosystem. This new upgrade will allow customers to pre-schedule their entire year's earnings calls, advisory releases for earnings announcements, and move between shared solutions from our PR and IR in a seamless way.

Brian Balbirnie: We have tested this with hundreds of customers' earnings releases from the past, worked with our investor relations community and audit firms to gather feedback, and are excited to bring this to market this coming week. Second, on the IR product front, we will begin our upgraded ACCESS events platform, where we are upgrading our events workflow technology into and with our ecosystem. This new upgrade will allow customers to pre-schedule their entire year's earnings calls, advisory releases for earnings announcements, and move between shared solutions from our PR and IR in a seamless way.

Speaker #1: Second, on the IR product front, we'll begin our upgraded ACCESS Events platform, where we are upgrading our events workflow technology into and with our ecosystem.

Speaker #1: This new upgrade will allow customers to pre-schedule their entire year's earnings calls, advisory releases for earnings announcements, and move between shared solutions from our PR and IR, in a seamless way.

Speaker #1: Our continued commitment is to have two new upgrades to our customers each quarter. One that improves communication workflow and technology by allowing our customers to tell their stories easier and with more options at no additional cost, and a second whereby we provide a value add-on and a small incremental increase in the press release actionable or subscription business, by doing this, we feel we will continue to drive value to our customers beyond what the market is doing, and also put us in a position to have the opportunity to garner higher revenues as the incremental products are utilized.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Our continued commitment is to have two new upgrades to our customers each quarter, one that improves communication workflow and technology by allowing our customers to tell their stories easier and with more options at no additional cost, and a second whereby we provide a value add-on and a small incremental increase in the press release, actionable, or subscription business. By doing this, we feel we will continue to drive value to our customers beyond what the market is doing and also put us in a position to have the opportunity to garner higher revenues as the incremental products are utilized. On the public relations side of the business, we have a new content distribution component we think is going to be spectacular, both not only in the future but truly well beyond and where we are headed as a business.

Brian Balbirnie: Our continued commitment is to have two new upgrades to our customers each quarter, one that improves communication workflow and technology by allowing our customers to tell their stories easier and with more options at no additional cost, and a second whereby we provide a value add-on and a small incremental increase in the press release, actionable, or subscription business. By doing this, we feel we will continue to drive value to our customers beyond what the market is doing and also put us in a position to have the opportunity to garner higher revenues as the incremental products are utilized. On the public relations side of the business, we have a new content distribution component we think is going to be spectacular, both not only in the future but truly well beyond and where we are headed as a business.

Speaker #1: On the public relations side of the business, we have a new content distribution component we think is going to be spectacular. Both not only in the future, but truly well beyond and where we're headed as a business.

Speaker #1: The initial rollout is going to give customers the ability to expand upon the timed distribution of a press release to a broader audience, without all the complexity or the human capital time needed to accomplish this.

Brian R. Balbirnie: The first initial rollout is going to give customers the ability to expand upon time to distribution of a press release to a broader audience without all the complexity of human capital time to accomplish this. This new feature will give customers the ability to select any social platform, journalist group, and tailor their messages to those audiences within our platform, rather than going to several different tools to post press releases and everything else to accomplish this. In early Q4, customers are going to have the option to add on our new ACCESS Content Studio, or at least the initial version of this fully robust MCP-supported product.

Brian Balbirnie: The first initial rollout is going to give customers the ability to expand upon time to distribution of a press release to a broader audience without all the complexity of human capital time to accomplish this. This new feature will give customers the ability to select any social platform, journalist group, and tailor their messages to those audiences within our platform, rather than going to several different tools to post press releases and everything else to accomplish this. In early Q4, customers are going to have the option to add on our new ACCESS Content Studio, or at least the initial version of this fully robust MCP-supported product.

Speaker #1: This new feature will give customers the ability to select any social platform, journalist group, and tailor their messages to those audiences within our platform, rather than going to several different tools to post press releases and everything else to accomplish this.

Speaker #1: In early Q4, customers are going to have the option to add on our new ACCESS Content Studio—or at least the initial version of this fully robust, MCP-supported product.

Speaker #1: The Content Studio will connect to your social accounts, build an FAQ of your business and brand, message for that press release, sketch out a white paper and newsletter or blog, and format all of these options to automatically be delivered to your audiences wherever they consume your message and content.

Brian R. Balbirnie: The Content Studio will connect to your social accounts, build an FAQ of your business and brand message for that press release, sketch out a white paper and newsletter or blog, and format all of these options to automatically be delivered to your audiences wherever they consume your message and content. We see this opportunity to roll this out to our customers at a 10% to 15% increase in current subscription. The value to the customer is going to be significant. First, they will have one central real-time platform for all their engagement analytics, story generation, audience building, and targeting wrapped into one. This innovation will lead us to a full studio toolbox concept that we have spoken about recently by the end of the year and into next year we will be releasing.

Brian Balbirnie: The Content Studio will connect to your social accounts, build an FAQ of your business and brand message for that press release, sketch out a white paper and newsletter or blog, and format all of these options to automatically be delivered to your audiences wherever they consume your message and content. We see this opportunity to roll this out to our customers at a 10% to 15% increase in current subscription. The value to the customer is going to be significant. First, they will have one central real-time platform for all their engagement analytics, story generation, audience building, and targeting wrapped into one. This innovation will lead us to a full studio toolbox concept that we have spoken about recently by the end of the year and into next year we will be releasing.

Speaker #1: We see this opportunity to roll this out to our customers at a 10 to 15 percent increase in current subscription. The value to the customer is going to be significant.

Speaker #1: First, they will have one central real-time platform for all their engagement analytics, story generation, audience building and targeting, wrapped into one. This innovation will lead us to a full studio toolbox concept that we have spoken about recently, by the end of the year and into next year, we will be releasing.

Speaker #1: As I said earlier, we have a full product pipeline that is robust and tied to our revenue growth strategy over the next couple of years.

Brian R. Balbirnie: As I said earlier, we have a full product pipeline that is robust and tied to our revenue growth strategy over the next couple of years. It is not easy to articulate all of these and what we are doing while remaining competitively agile as one of the only publicly traded newswires. Customer numbers were up 24% in Q2 for this year compared to last year, an increase of 6% over the prior quarter as well. Where I am most encouraged is in the private customer growth that we achieved this quarter. This is largely being driven from our e-commerce initiatives as private company brand platforms. As we continue to learn from these customer needs, we feel very good about moving a fair percentage of these customers into subscribers over the next 12 months.

Brian Balbirnie: As I said earlier, we have a full product pipeline that is robust and tied to our revenue growth strategy over the next couple of years. It is not easy to articulate all of these and what we are doing while remaining competitively agile as one of the only publicly traded newswires. Customer numbers were up 24% in Q2 for this year compared to last year, an increase of 6% over the prior quarter as well. Where I am most encouraged is in the private customer growth that we achieved this quarter. This is largely being driven from our e-commerce initiatives as private company brand platforms. As we continue to learn from these customer needs, we feel very good about moving a fair percentage of these customers into subscribers over the next 12 months.

Speaker #1: It is not easy to articulate all of these in what we're doing while remaining competitively agile as one of the only publicly traded newswires.

Speaker #1: Customer numbers were up 24% in Q2 for this year, compared to last year an increase of 6% over the prior quarter as well. We're our most encouraged is in the private customer growth that we achieved this quarter.

Speaker #1: This is largely being driven from our e-commerce initiatives, as private company brand platforms, as we continue to learn from these customer needs, we feel very good about moving a fair percentage of these customers into subscribers over the next 12 months.

Speaker #1: Today, it's about delivering for them, helping build their stories and educating them on the immense opportunity our platform can bring to a brand when they're seeking to find coverage and exposure.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Today, it is about delivering for them, helping build their stories, and educating them on the immense opportunity our platform can bring to a brand when they are seeking to find coverage and exposure. It is critical to listen to them today, so we are afforded these opportunities in the future. in Q2, ARR increased 15% year over year from $11,039 to $12,718, as Steve and I said previously, pushing subscriber revenue 23% higher for the prior period. We also ended the quarter up in total subscriptions, ending with 1,162, up 4% from 1,119. Retaining these customers is critical to our long-term business. Retention for the quarter was 94%, up 2% from the end of Q1 this year and 3% prior year quarter. Our net revenue retention has also continued to grow since last year and now ended Q2 at 124%.

Brian Balbirnie: Today, it is about delivering for them, helping build their stories, and educating them on the immense opportunity our platform can bring to a brand when they are seeking to find coverage and exposure. It is critical to listen to them today, so we are afforded these opportunities in the future. in Q2, ARR increased 15% year over year from $11,039 to $12,718, as Steve and I said previously, pushing subscriber revenue 23% higher for the prior period. We also ended the quarter up in total subscriptions, ending with 1,162, up 4% from 1,119. Retaining these customers is critical to our long-term business. Retention for the quarter was 94%, up 2% from the end of Q1 this year and 3% prior year quarter. Our net revenue retention has also continued to grow since last year and now ended Q2 at 124%.

Speaker #1: But it's critical to listen to them today so we're afforded these opportunities in the future. In Q2, ARR increased 15% year over year from $11,039 to $12,078, as Steve and I said previously, pushing subscriber revenue 23% higher than the prior period.

Speaker #1: We also ended the quarter up in total subscriptions ending with $1,162 up 4% from $1,119. Retaining these customers is critical to our long-term business.

Speaker #1: Retention for the quarter was 94%, up 2% from the end of Q1 this year, and 3% prior year quarter. Our net revenue retention is also continued to grow since last year, and now ended Q2 at $124%.

Speaker #1: It would be nice to guide improvements here in retention and net revenue retention, but our focus in the back half of the year is going to be on new subscriptions, while maintaining this threshold for current customers in the back half.

Brian R. Balbirnie: It would be nice to guide improvements here in retention and net revenue retention, but our focus in the back half of the year is going to be on new subscriptions while maintaining this threshold for current customers in the back half. Additionally, we continue to focus and refine our other revenues and learn how we can move these customers into lower-tier subscriptions. Like we have said before, these are reoccurring at the time of delivery revenue customers that do commit to a fixed amount of dollars spread over a fixed period. That business today is approximately 40% of our overall revenues or non-subscription revenue, if you think about it that way. In what we have planned the H2 of the year, we will see our recurring revenue business, our ARR business, get closer to the 80% number, where we want to be this time next year.

Brian Balbirnie: It would be nice to guide improvements here in retention and net revenue retention, but our focus in the back half of the year is going to be on new subscriptions while maintaining this threshold for current customers in the back half. Additionally, we continue to focus and refine our other revenues and learn how we can move these customers into lower-tier subscriptions. Like we have said before, these are reoccurring at the time of delivery revenue customers that do commit to a fixed amount of dollars spread over a fixed period. That business today is approximately 40% of our overall revenues or non-subscription revenue, if you think about it that way. In what we have planned the H2 of the year, we will see our recurring revenue business, our ARR business, get closer to the 80% number, where we want to be this time next year.

Speaker #1: Additionally, we continue to focus and refine our other revenues and learn how we can move these customers into lower tier subscriptions, like we have said before, these are reoccurring at the time of delivery revenue customers, that do commit to a fixed amount of dollars, spread over a fixed period.

Speaker #1: That business today is approximately 40% of all of our revenues, or non-subscription revenue if you think about it that way. And what we have planned the second half of the year, we will see our recurring revenue business, our ARR business, get closer to the 80% number where we want to be this time next year.

Speaker #1: So why are all these new products, metrics, or customer growths and increased investment in sales and marketing important? Well, Gardner recently published a report that speaks to the PR industry.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Well, why are all these new products, metrics, or customer growths and increased investment in sales and marketing important? Gartner recently published a report that speaks to the PR industry, calling it to double by the end of 2027, AI being a significant contributor to this. This is exactly what we have been saying to our shareholders late last year and early this year. We independently also have a view that this market is going to return to double-digit growth in 2027 and beyond, and we intend to capture it. Yes, AI is enabling this, but the number of new businesses being formed is also driving this assumption. This is coming from the research that we have done that we will refer to as the hustle generation. This is tied to tiers right between Gen Z and Millennials.

Brian Balbirnie: Well, why are all these new products, metrics, or customer growths and increased investment in sales and marketing important? Gartner recently published a report that speaks to the PR industry, calling it to double by the end of 2027, AI being a significant contributor to this. This is exactly what we have been saying to our shareholders late last year and early this year. We independently also have a view that this market is going to return to double-digit growth in 2027 and beyond, and we intend to capture it. Yes, AI is enabling this, but the number of new businesses being formed is also driving this assumption. This is coming from the research that we have done that we will refer to as the hustle generation. This is tied to tiers right between Gen Z and Millennials.

Speaker #1: Calling it the double by the end of 2027. AI being a significant contributor to this. This is exactly what we have been saying to our shareholders, late last year, and early this year.

Speaker #1: We independently also have a view that this market is going to return to double digit growth in 2027 and beyond, and we intend to capture it.

Speaker #1: The SAI is enabling this, but the number of new businesses being formed is also driving this assumption. This is coming from the research that we've done that we'll refer to as the hustle generation.

Speaker #1: This is tied to tiers right between Gen Z and millennials. These are the new decision makers in the IRPR landscape and are growing number of these have both regular career positions and side hustles, resulting in these additional businesses being registered and needing help tell their stories with products that we have brought to market this year.

Brian R. Balbirnie: These are the new decision-makers in the IR/PR landscape, and a growing number of these have both regular career positions and side hustles, resulting in these additional businesses being registered and needing help tell their stories with products that we have brought to market this year, like social monitoring and our Insight and Analytics reports that have contributed to revenue in the second quarter. Although I am not fully satisfied with the overall results in the second quarter, I am proud of the advances that we have made, and we continue to enter a new phase for ACCESS. We have one of the most comprehensive Investor Relations and Public Relations platforms in the industry that can be between both public markets and private enterprises globally. We remain confident in our ability to continue to strengthening our competitive position from here.

Brian Balbirnie: These are the new decision-makers in the IR/PR landscape, and a growing number of these have both regular career positions and side hustles, resulting in these additional businesses being registered and needing help tell their stories with products that we have brought to market this year, like social monitoring and our Insight and Analytics reports that have contributed to revenue in the second quarter. Although I am not fully satisfied with the overall results in the second quarter, I am proud of the advances that we have made, and we continue to enter a new phase for ACCESS. We have one of the most comprehensive Investor Relations and Public Relations platforms in the industry that can be between both public markets and private enterprises globally. We remain confident in our ability to continue to strengthening our competitive position from here.

Speaker #1: Like social monitoring and our insights and analytic reports that have contributed to revenue in the second quarter. Although I'm not fully satisfied with the overall results in the second quarter, I am proud of the advancements that we've made, and we continue to enter a new phase for ACCESS.

Speaker #1: We have one of the most comprehensive investor relations and public relations platforms in the industry, which can serve both public markets and private enterprises globally.

Speaker #1: We remain confident in our ability to continue to strengthening our competitive position from here. I want to thank our teams, customers, partners, and shareholders for their trust and ongoing support that allow us to bring ACCESS into every company in the world.

Brian R. Balbirnie: I want to thank our teams, customers, partners, and shareholders for their trust and ongoing support that allow us to bring ACCESS into every company in the world. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Brian Balbirnie: I want to thank our teams, customers, partners, and shareholders for their trust and ongoing support that allow us to bring ACCESS into every company in the world. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for questions. Operator?

Speaker #1: With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for questions. Operator?

[Company Representative] (ACCESS Newswire): Operator?

Speaker #2: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad.

Operator 2: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please, while we poll for questions. The first question today is coming from Luke Horton from Northland Securities. Luke, your line is live.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please, while we poll for questions. The first question today is coming from Luke Horton from Northland Securities. Luke, your line is live.

Speaker #2: A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue.

Speaker #2: For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions.

Speaker #2: And the first question today is coming from Luke Horton from Northland Securities. Luke, your line is live.

Speaker #3: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to touch on pricing. As you think about all of these product enhancements, kind of slated for the back half of the year, how are you kind of layering in any pricing increases or add-on pricing or just how do you think about pricing in general given the product enhancements slated for this year and going forward?

Lucas John Horton: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to touch on pricing. As you think about all of these product enhancements slated for the back half of the year, how are you kind of layering in any pricing increases or add-on pricing, or just how do you think about pricing in general, given the product enhancements slated for this year and going forward?

Luke Horton: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to touch on pricing. As you think about all of these product enhancements slated for the back half of the year, how are you kind of layering in any pricing increases or add-on pricing, or just how do you think about pricing in general, given the product enhancements slated for this year and going forward?

Speaker #4: Yeah. Hey, Luke. It's Brian. Yeah, the feature of the products that we've released already, the insight and analytics and social give customers the ability and so to try before you commit and have a different pricing tier.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Yeah. Hey, Luke, it's Brian. Yeah. Each of the products that we've released already, the Insight and Analytics and social, give customers the ability to try before you commit and have a different pricing tier. Let me try to walk through a couple of them. In the Insight and Analytics, for example, our customers that pay for a press release as they consume it without a long-term contract or subscription, have the option to add it to any press release for an additional fee. So there's an incremental increase. We're seeing the benefits of our average price per release increase as a result of that. We think that's going to continue to get better. There's about 600-plus Insight and Analytics reports will run during half of the Q2 period that we released that product.

Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. Hey, Luke, it's Brian. Yeah. Each of the products that we've released already, the Insight and Analytics and social, give customers the ability to try before you commit and have a different pricing tier. Let me try to walk through a couple of them. In the Insight and Analytics, for example, our customers that pay for a press release as they consume it without a long-term contract or subscription, have the option to add it to any press release for an additional fee. So there's an incremental increase. We're seeing the benefits of our average price per release increase as a result of that. We think that's going to continue to get better. There's about 600-plus Insight and Analytics reports will run during half of the Q2 period that we released that product.

Speaker #4: So let me try to walk through a couple of them. In the insight and analytics, for example, our customers that pay for a press release as they consume it without a long-term contract or subscription have the option to add it to any press release for an additional fee.

Speaker #4: So there's an incremental increase. We're seeing the benefits of our average price per release increase as a result of that. We think that's going to continue to get better.

Speaker #4: It's about $600 plus insight analytics reports will run during kind of half of the Q2 period that we released that product. Our social monitoring, for example, initially was rolled out as an upgrade for $200 a month for our subscriber clients.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Our social monitoring, for example, initially was rolled out as an upgrade, for $200 a month for our subscriber clients. They had the option to opt into that. Starting next month, we are going to move that product to, I think I said earlier, on our PressRelease.com platform to give customers the ability to try before they commit to a longer-term contract. We are hopeful that each of the quarters going forward over the next six to eight quarters, we are going to have two products. One that further identifies the moat that we are building for our platform to give our customers more ability to establish their brand voice and their story in their press release, without any additional cost. Then a very competitive product advancement that has an economic benefit to us.

Brian Balbirnie: Our social monitoring, for example, initially was rolled out as an upgrade, for $200 a month for our subscriber clients. They had the option to opt into that. Starting next month, we are going to move that product to, I think I said earlier, on our PressRelease.com platform to give customers the ability to try before they commit to a longer-term contract. We are hopeful that each of the quarters going forward over the next six to eight quarters, we are going to have two products. One that further identifies the moat that we are building for our platform to give our customers more ability to establish their brand voice and their story in their press release, without any additional cost. Then a very competitive product advancement that has an economic benefit to us.

Speaker #4: They had the option to opt into that. Starting next month, we're going to move that product to, I think I said earlier, on our PressRelease.com platform to give customers the ability to try before they commit to a longer-term contract.

Speaker #4: So like I said, we're hopeful that each of the quarters going forward over the next six to eight quarters, we're going to have two products one that further identifies the moat that we're building for our platform to give our customers more ability to establish their brand voice and their story in their press release.

Speaker #4: Without any additional cost. And then a very competitive product advancement that has an economic benefit to us. So this always ties back to our strategic view a couple of years ago when we guided the 15,000 in ARR.

Brian R. Balbirnie: This always ties back to our strategic view a couple of years ago when we guided to 15,000 in ARR. We have a product pipeline that will get us there. The ACCESS Content Studio will be another incremental $200 to $300 a month that customers can add this on, then the toolkit at full release next year will drive even more value. That is not to say that we may not release a couple of additional things along the way that, again, have a no-charge benefit to give our customers some value and keep them sticky.

Brian Balbirnie: This always ties back to our strategic view a couple of years ago when we guided to 15,000 in ARR. We have a product pipeline that will get us there. The ACCESS Content Studio will be another incremental $200 to $300 a month that customers can add this on, then the toolkit at full release next year will drive even more value. That is not to say that we may not release a couple of additional things along the way that, again, have a no-charge benefit to give our customers some value and keep them sticky.

Speaker #4: We have a product pipeline that will get us there. So the content studio will be another incremental two to $300 a month that customers can add this on and then the toolkit at full release next year will drive even more value.

Speaker #4: And that's not to say that we may not release a couple of additional things along the way that, again, have a no-charge benefit to give our customers some value and keep them sticky.

Speaker #3: Okay, great. That's helpful. And then I guess just on the kind of sales efforts here, I guess how much of the focus is growing with your existing client base versus kind of outbound sales efforts and any of these product enhancements specifically geared towards kind of customer acquisition or more so just kind of giving them a better product and growing with existing customers?

Lucas John Horton: Okay, great. That is helpful. I guess just on the sales efforts here, I guess how much of the focus is growing with your existing client base versus outbound sales efforts and any of these product enhancements specifically geared towards customer acquisition or more so just giving them a better product and growing with existing customers?

Luke Horton: Okay, great. That is helpful. I guess just on the sales efforts here, I guess how much of the focus is growing with your existing client base versus outbound sales efforts and any of these product enhancements specifically geared towards customer acquisition or more so just giving them a better product and growing with existing customers?

Speaker #4: Yeah. The investment in sales and marketing is really kind of a bifurcated model. It's very comprehensive, and Steve mentioned it earlier in his prepared remarks.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Yeah. The investment in sales and marketing is really a bifurcated model. It is very comprehensive, and Steve Knerr mentioned it earlier in his prepared remarks. For the H1 of the year, we probably spent 50% more in trade shows and conferences. Getting ourselves out there into the field to start to talk to customers on the street, understand their needs, what they are looking for, and build our brand to help drive pipeline for us and opportunity. On the flip side, from a sales investment, we have hired more headcount in our sales teams to be able to handle the number of inbound leads. Conversely, for the past year, we have been focused on how do we take a customer from $10,000 to $11,000 to $12,000 in ARR? How do we convert customers from a bundled package of press releases to an ARR subscription model?

Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. The investment in sales and marketing is really a bifurcated model. It is very comprehensive, and Steve Knerr mentioned it earlier in his prepared remarks. For the H1 of the year, we probably spent 50% more in trade shows and conferences. Getting ourselves out there into the field to start to talk to customers on the street, understand their needs, what they are looking for, and build our brand to help drive pipeline for us and opportunity. On the flip side, from a sales investment, we have hired more headcount in our sales teams to be able to handle the number of inbound leads. Conversely, for the past year, we have been focused on how do we take a customer from $10,000 to $11,000 to $12,000 in ARR? How do we convert customers from a bundled package of press releases to an ARR subscription model?

Speaker #4: For the first half of the year, we probably spent 50% more in trade shows and conferences. Getting ourselves out there into the field to start to talk to customers on the street, understand their needs, what they're looking for, and build our brand to help drive pipeline for us and opportunity.

Speaker #4: On the flip side, from a sales investment, we've hired more headcount in our sales teams to be able to handle the number of inbound leads.

Speaker #4: And so, conversely, for the past year, we've been focused on how do we take a customer from $10,000 to $11,000 to $12,000 in ARR?

Speaker #4: How do we convert customers from a bundled package of press releases to an ARR subscription model? And we've done that, I think, relatively well.

Brian R. Balbirnie: We have done that, I think, relatively well. We have done it with good retention. We have done it with good net dollar retention. Because of the investment in sales and marketing, now we are turning our focus more to outbound new customer acquisition to push and really deliver on the top-line numbers that we want and will help fuel our growth for the future. It has been a little bit of both, but right now we are really wanting to maintain our current account base. We still feel like there will be small percentages of our customers will see value from a bundled product to a subscription, but the growth really over the next 6 to 12 months is going to come from new customers coming into the platform.

Brian Balbirnie: We have done that, I think, relatively well. We have done it with good retention. We have done it with good net dollar retention. Because of the investment in sales and marketing, now we are turning our focus more to outbound new customer acquisition to push and really deliver on the top-line numbers that we want and will help fuel our growth for the future. It has been a little bit of both, but right now we are really wanting to maintain our current account base. We still feel like there will be small percentages of our customers will see value from a bundled product to a subscription, but the growth really over the next 6 to 12 months is going to come from new customers coming into the platform.

Speaker #4: We've done it with good retention. We've done it with good net dollar retention. And because of the investment in sales and marketing, now we're turning our focus more to outbound new customer acquisition, to push and really deliver on the top-line numbers that we want.

Speaker #4: We'll help fuel our growth for the future. So it's been a little bit of both, but right now, we're really wanting to maintain our current account base we still feel like there'll be small percentages of our customers will see value from a bundled product to a subscription, but the growth really over the next six to 12 months is going to come from new customers coming into the platform.

Speaker #3: Okay, great. That's super helpful. Thanks, Brian.

Lucas John Horton: Okay, great. That is super helpful. Thanks, Brian.

Luke Horton: Okay, great. That is super helpful. Thanks, Brian.

Speaker #4: Thank you, Luke.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Thank you, Luke.

Brian Balbirnie: Thank you, Luke.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And the next question will be from Jacob Stefan from Lake Street Capital. Jacob, your line is live.

Operator 2: Thank you. The next question will be from Jacob Stephan from Lake Street Capital. Jacob, your line is live.

Operator: Thank you. The next question will be from Jacob Stephan from Lake Street Capital. Jacob, your line is live.

Speaker #5: Hey, guys. Appreciate you taking the questions. Solid quarter here. Maybe just building off of that last sales and marketing effort question. I guess, is there a CAC or maybe a payback period that you're kind of factoring into your underwriting?

Jacob Stephan: Hey, guys. Appreciate you taking the questions. Solid quarter here. Maybe just building off of that last sales and marketing effort question. I guess, is there a CAC or maybe a payback period that you are kind of factoring into your underwriting, and I guess, do you ultimately expect that shows up in subscriber trajectory throughout the back half of the year here?

Jacob Stephan: Hey, guys. Appreciate you taking the questions. Solid quarter here. Maybe just building off of that last sales and marketing effort question. I guess, is there a CAC or maybe a payback period that you are kind of factoring into your underwriting, and I guess, do you ultimately expect that shows up in subscriber trajectory throughout the back half of the year here?

Speaker #5: And I guess, do you ultimately expect that shows up in the subscriber trajectory throughout the back half of the year here?

Speaker #4: Yeah, we definitely do look at it, right? And we've been tracking our CAC. For the better part of the last year plus, as it relates to subscriptions, and non-subscription customers, we kind of look at the CAC differently for both of those.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Yeah, we definitely do look at it, right? We have been tracking our CAC for the better part of the last year plus as it relates to subscriptions and non-subscription customers. We look at the CAC differently for both of those. The CAC paybacks on press release, incremental pay-as-you-go, or e-commerce business, after the first release, essentially pay for themselves. It is up to our sales team to continue to manage those accounts and move them into subscriptions or repetitive press releases and bundles as they go. The CAC, as you would appreciate, is a little more expensive on a subscriber because the length of time it takes to convert somebody, generally a 3 to 6-month window, is what you are really looking at from pipeline building. So the cost to do that is a little higher. However, it has come down over the last quarter or 2.

Brian Balbirnie: Yeah, we definitely do look at it, right? We have been tracking our CAC for the better part of the last year plus as it relates to subscriptions and non-subscription customers. We look at the CAC differently for both of those. The CAC paybacks on press release, incremental pay-as-you-go, or e-commerce business, after the first release, essentially pay for themselves. It is up to our sales team to continue to manage those accounts and move them into subscriptions or repetitive press releases and bundles as they go. The CAC, as you would appreciate, is a little more expensive on a subscriber because the length of time it takes to convert somebody, generally a 3 to 6-month window, is what you are really looking at from pipeline building. So the cost to do that is a little higher. However, it has come down over the last quarter or 2.

Speaker #4: The CAC paybacks on press release incremental page you go or e-commerce business, after the first release, essentially pay for themselves. It's up to our sales team to continue to manage those accounts and move them into subscriptions or repetitive press releases and bundles.

Speaker #4: As they go, the CAC is appreciated a little more expensive on a subscriber because of the length of time it takes to convert somebody. Generally, a three- to six-month window is what you're really looking at from pipeline building.

Speaker #4: So it's the cost to do that is a little higher. However, it has come down over the last quarter or two. We believe it will continue to come down.

Brian R. Balbirnie: We believe it will continue to come down. We are bullish about the industry, like we talked about with what Gartner released here just about a month ago, to look at what this industry is doing. Seeing some of the backup data that has provided some assurances to both our strategy, Gartner's independent research, as well as Census data, is giving us the confidence that we can continue to grow this business and not increase our CAC significantly, if anything, bring it down over the coming quarters. Something we will likely get to talking about externally. As being the only publicly traded newswire, there is a little bit of competitive advantage we get by not saying too much. I hope that our shareholders appreciate and understand that.

Brian Balbirnie: We believe it will continue to come down. We are bullish about the industry, like we talked about with what Gartner released here just about a month ago, to look at what this industry is doing. Seeing some of the backup data that has provided some assurances to both our strategy, Gartner's independent research, as well as Census data, is giving us the confidence that we can continue to grow this business and not increase our CAC significantly, if anything, bring it down over the coming quarters. Something we will likely get to talking about externally. As being the only publicly traded newswire, there is a little bit of competitive advantage we get by not saying too much. I hope that our shareholders appreciate and understand that.

Speaker #4: We're bullish about the industry. Like we talked about with what Gartner released here just about a month ago, to look at what this industry is doing and seeing from the backup data that is provided gives some assurances to both our strategy and Gartner's independent research, as well as census data. This is giving us the confidence that we can continue to grow this business and not increase our CAC significantly—if anything, bring it down over the coming quarters.

Speaker #4: Something we'll likely get to talking about externally—like I said in one of my prepared comments earlier—is being the only publicly traded newswire. There is a little bit of competitive advantage we get by not saying too much.

Speaker #4: And I hope that our shareholders appreciate and understand that. But we want to be cognizant of both giving our shareholders a prospective shareholders all the data they need to make an investment decision, but also maintain ourselves a little competitive advantage against the quadrant.

Brian R. Balbirnie: We want to be cognizant of both giving our shareholders or prospective shareholders all the data they need to make an investment decision, but also maintain ourselves a little competitive advantage against the quadrant.

Brian Balbirnie: We want to be cognizant of both giving our shareholders or prospective shareholders all the data they need to make an investment decision, but also maintain ourselves a little competitive advantage against the quadrant.

Speaker #5: That all makes sense. I guess maybe just transitioning over to your ARR per sub, I guess when you look at the sequential decrease, only about $100, but anything that's driving that? Is that lower on the higher ARPU subscriptions, or more EDU customers?

Jacob Stephan: No, it makes sense. I guess maybe just transitioning over to your ARR per sub. I guess, when you look at the sequential decrease, only about $100, but anything that is driving that, is that lower on the higher ARPU subscriptions or more EDU customers? I am wondering if you could break that out for us.

Jacob Stephan: No, it makes sense. I guess maybe just transitioning over to your ARR per sub. I guess, when you look at the sequential decrease, only about $100, but anything that is driving that, is that lower on the higher ARPU subscriptions or more EDU customers? I am wondering if you could break that out for us.

Speaker #5: I wondered if you could kind of break that out for us.

Speaker #4: Yeah, I think it's the private company space. We talked about it being a big incremental push for us. We are trying to find entry points.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Yeah, I think it is the private company space. We talked about it being a big incremental push to us. We are trying to find entry points. We have said it in the prior quarters. We are trying to find where there could potentially be significant scale in customer subscription numbers at a lower tier price. So we are going into certain verticals trying to find a lower priced ARR product that can get us into those markets and try to find a way to learn, iterate, and scale fast. So that is a result of what it is. To be fair, our public company customers that are renewing and adding on, those ARR values are growing. Sorry, net dollar numbers are good. We are just finding a little more success at a lower price point. We have talked about this. I think we will continue to see some of that.

Brian Balbirnie: Yeah, I think it is the private company space. We talked about it being a big incremental push to us. We are trying to find entry points. We have said it in the prior quarters. We are trying to find where there could potentially be significant scale in customer subscription numbers at a lower tier price. So we are going into certain verticals trying to find a lower priced ARR product that can get us into those markets and try to find a way to learn, iterate, and scale fast. So that is a result of what it is. To be fair, our public company customers that are renewing and adding on, those ARR values are growing. Sorry, net dollar numbers are good. We are just finding a little more success at a lower price point. We have talked about this. I think we will continue to see some of that.

Speaker #4: We said it in the prior quarters we're trying to find where there could potentially be significant scale and customer subscription numbers at a lower tier price.

Speaker #4: So we are going into certain verticals trying to find a lower priced ARR product that can get us into those markets and try to find a way to learn iterate and scale fast.

Speaker #4: So that's a result of what it is. To be fair, our public company customers that are renewing and adding on—those ARR values are growing.

Speaker #4: I'm sorry, net dollar numbers are good. We're just finding a little more success and a lower price point. And we've talked about this. So I think we'll continue to see some of that.

Speaker #4: What will help subside it, obviously, is the new product ads that we've got that will impact ARR. So we shouldn't see a sequential decrease as much as we'll see kind of a consistent number across the board here in Q3, and then in Q4 we'll grow because of some of the hard dollar ARR add-ons.

Brian R. Balbirnie: What will help subside it, obviously, is the new product adds that we have got that will impact ARR. We shouldn't see a sequential decrease as much as we will see kind of a consistent number across the board here in Q3, then in Q4 will grow because of some of the hard dollar ARR add-ons. But not alarming for us. It is expected. We talked about it in the last couple of quarters on our calls that it is something that we are experimenting with.

Brian Balbirnie: What will help subside it, obviously, is the new product adds that we have got that will impact ARR. We shouldn't see a sequential decrease as much as we will see kind of a consistent number across the board here in Q3, then in Q4 will grow because of some of the hard dollar ARR add-ons. But not alarming for us. It is expected. We talked about it in the last couple of quarters on our calls that it is something that we are experimenting with.

Speaker #4: But it's not alarming for us. It's expected. We've talked about it in the last couple of quarters on our calls as something that we're experimenting with.

Speaker #5: Okay, got it. I appreciate all the color. Thanks, Brian.

Jacob Stephan: Okay. Got it. I appreciate all the color. Thanks, Brian.

Jacob Stephan: Okay. Got it. I appreciate all the color. Thanks, Brian.

Speaker #4: Great. Thanks, Jacob.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Great. Thanks, Nicholas.

Brian Balbirnie: Great. Thanks, Nicholas.

Speaker #2: Thank you. And the next question will be from Brock Irwin from Clever Investing. Brock, your line is live.

Operator 2: Thank you. The next question will be from Brock Irwin from Clever Investing. Brock, your line is live.

Operator: Thank you. The next question will be from Brock Irwin from Clever Investing. Brock, your line is live.

Speaker #6: Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the question. So, just thinking about the industry overall over the last several years, obviously there's been a trend of contraction, so I'm just thinking about your forecast—or not really a forecast, but your thoughts about 2027—and how you think there's a chance that the industry gets back to growth.

Brock Irwin: Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the question. Just thinking about the industry overall over the last several years, obviously there has been a trend of contraction. So I am just thinking about your forecast, not really a forecast, but you are thinking about 2027 and how you think there is a chance that the industry gets back to growth. I would say that 20% growth rate number you mentioned sounds pretty optimistic. I guess the question is what gives you the confidence and what data points are you seeing maybe from talking to customers at trade shows that would help indicate that there is a chance that the industry grows? The other thing I am thinking about is you are talking about a lot of startups being formed around AI.

Brock Erwin: Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the question. Just thinking about the industry overall over the last several years, obviously there has been a trend of contraction. So I am just thinking about your forecast, not really a forecast, but you are thinking about 2027 and how you think there is a chance that the industry gets back to growth. I would say that 20% growth rate number you mentioned sounds pretty optimistic. I guess the question is what gives you the confidence and what data points are you seeing maybe from talking to customers at trade shows that would help indicate that there is a chance that the industry grows? The other thing I am thinking about is you are talking about a lot of startups being formed around AI.

Speaker #6: I would say that 20% growth rate number you mentioned sounds pretty optimistic. I guess the question is: What gives you the confidence, and what data points are you seeing—maybe from talking to customers at trade shows—that would help indicate that there is a chance that the industry grows?

Speaker #6: And then the other thing I’m thinking about is, you’re talking about a lot of startups being formed around AI. And these might be smaller companies.

Brock Irwin: These might be smaller companies who maybe don't want to spend thousands of dollars on press releases like to your, I guess the previous question was talking about lower price points. I guess, as we are moving into a lot of AI startups being formed, how are you thinking about addressing that type of customer differently from some of the public company customers that you have today?

Brock Erwin: These might be smaller companies who maybe don't want to spend thousands of dollars on press releases like to your, I guess the previous question was talking about lower price points. I guess, as we are moving into a lot of AI startups being formed, how are you thinking about addressing that type of customer differently from some of the public company customers that you have today?

Speaker #6: Who maybe don't want to spend thousands of dollars on press releases like Tier—I guess the question, the previous question, was talking about lower price points.

Speaker #6: So I guess as we're moving into a lot of AI startups being formed, how are you thinking about addressing that type of customer differently from some of the public company customers that you have today?

Speaker #4: Yeah, that's I'm going to try to gather all that up, Brock, and answer it. And if I miss something, let's peel it back a little bit and do it.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Yeah. I am going to try to gather all that up, Brock, and answer it. If I miss something, let's peel it back a little bit and do it. The contraction in the industry over the past couple of years, again, not just for us, but the entire marketplace, I think has really been driven upon the confusion of what it is I need as a business, whether enterprise or SMB, to try to figure out how best to tell my story. There has been a significant amount of point solution entrants into the market during that time, which typically causes people to slow down in decision-making processes because there is so much. That noise is starting to move itself away, and customers are now saying, "Okay, let's get back to basics." This is what we are being told out in the field.

Brian Balbirnie: Yeah. I am going to try to gather all that up, Brock, and answer it. If I miss something, let's peel it back a little bit and do it. The contraction in the industry over the past couple of years, again, not just for us, but the entire marketplace, I think has really been driven upon the confusion of what it is I need as a business, whether enterprise or SMB, to try to figure out how best to tell my story. There has been a significant amount of point solution entrants into the market during that time, which typically causes people to slow down in decision-making processes because there is so much. That noise is starting to move itself away, and customers are now saying, "Okay, let's get back to basics." This is what we are being told out in the field.

Speaker #4: So the contraction in the industry over the past couple of years, again, not just for us, but the entire marketplace, I think has really been driven upon the confusion of what it is I need as a business, whether enterprise or SMB, to try to figure out how best to tell my story.

Speaker #4: There's been a significant amount of point solution entrance into the market during that time, which typically causes people to slow down and decision-making processes because there's so much.

Speaker #4: That noise is starting to move itself away and customers are now saying, "Okay, let's get back to basics. This is what we're being told out in the field." And because of AI, what do we need to be doing differently?

Brian R. Balbirnie: Because of AI, what do we need to be doing differently? Are our press releases being featured and seen in citations and LLMs and listicles? If they are, who does it best? If who does it best, we need to go there. That is our North Star. We are trying to position ourselves to be that entity. We are not trying to build our business around AI. It is an enablement of disruption for the tools and the services that we provide to our customers. The example of that is this ACCESS Content Studio, right? You bring up the comment about being optimistic about growth in 20%. Gartner looks at this as an AI disruptor space growth.

Brian Balbirnie: Because of AI, what do we need to be doing differently? Are our press releases being featured and seen in citations and LLMs and listicles? If they are, who does it best? If who does it best, we need to go there. That is our North Star. We are trying to position ourselves to be that entity. We are not trying to build our business around AI. It is an enablement of disruption for the tools and the services that we provide to our customers. The example of that is this ACCESS Content Studio, right? You bring up the comment about being optimistic about growth in 20%. Gartner looks at this as an AI disruptor space growth.

Speaker #4: Are our press releases being featured and seen in citations and LLMs enlisticals? And if they are, who does it best? And who does it best?

Speaker #4: We need to go there—that's our North Star. And so, we're trying to position ourselves to be that entity. We're not trying to build our business around AI.

Speaker #4: It is an enablement of disruption for the tools and the services that we provide to our customers. And so the example of that is this content studio.

Speaker #4: Right? So you bring up the comment about being optimistic about growth in 20%. Gartner looks at this as an AI disruptor space growth. Our large enterprise customers that come to us are now saying, "We love your AI, our website solutions, your earnings call products, your press releases, and all the other PR tools, but what are you doing to address our AI needs?" Large enterprises are building AI teams to help both from material nonpublic information risks to expansion of brand, down the hall to the CMO and the CCO suite.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Our large enterprise customers that come to us are now saying, "We love your IR website solutions, your earnings call products, your press releases, and all the other PR tools. But what are you doing to address our AI needs?" Large enterprises are building AI teams to kind of help, both from material non-public information risks to expansion of brand down the hall to the CMO and the CCO suite. There are bigger opportunities that will come to all of us in this industry in the future as we grow. But to your second comment about startups, Brock, we feel that is where the market really is for some of this disruption potential growth because if these hustle generation people are out there, they do not have the bandwidth to do all this work.

Brian Balbirnie: Our large enterprise customers that come to us are now saying, "We love your IR website solutions, your earnings call products, your press releases, and all the other PR tools. But what are you doing to address our AI needs?" Large enterprises are building AI teams to kind of help, both from material non-public information risks to expansion of brand down the hall to the CMO and the CCO suite. There are bigger opportunities that will come to all of us in this industry in the future as we grow. But to your second comment about startups, Brock, we feel that is where the market really is for some of this disruption potential growth because if these hustle generation people are out there, they do not have the bandwidth to do all this work.

Speaker #4: So there's bigger opportunities that will come to all of us in this industry in the future as we grow, but to your second comment about startups, Brock, we feel that's where the market really is for some of this disruption potential growth because if these muscle generation people are out there, they don't have the bandwidth to do all this work.

Speaker #4: So they're going to be looking for a tool and a technology that can help them, whether it's one press release a month, one a quarter, or two a year.

Brian R. Balbirnie: They are going to be looking for a tool and a technology that can help them, whether it is one press release a month or one a quarter or two a year. They are going to need those other products. It is going to be less about how many press releases we sell to some of these clients, more than it is, can we give them a communications platform for them to do the things that they need? Because again, this is their side hustle. This is not their primary jobs. When you look at census data, right, what are our data points is another part of what you asked. We have taken our own view of the market over the past couple of years, and we have said this publicly that we think it is going to get back to growth. Gartner reaffirms that with their estimates and their analyst information.

Brian Balbirnie: They are going to be looking for a tool and a technology that can help them, whether it is one press release a month or one a quarter or two a year. They are going to need those other products. It is going to be less about how many press releases we sell to some of these clients, more than it is, can we give them a communications platform for them to do the things that they need? Because again, this is their side hustle. This is not their primary jobs. When you look at census data, right, what are our data points is another part of what you asked. We have taken our own view of the market over the past couple of years, and we have said this publicly that we think it is going to get back to growth. Gartner reaffirms that with their estimates and their analyst information.

Speaker #4: They're going to need those other products, and so it's going to be less about how many press releases we sell to some of these clients and more about whether we can give them a communications platform for them to do the things that they need, because, again, this is their side hustle.

Speaker #4: This isn't their primary job. When you look at census data, right, what are our data points? There's another part of what you asked. We've taken our own view of the market over the past couple of years and we've said this publicly that we think it's going to get back to growth.

Speaker #4: Gartner reaffirmed that with their estimates and their analyst information. They're going to publish a Magic Quadrant here in October. We'll all take a look and see where we all sit there.

Brian R. Balbirnie: They are going to publish a Magic Quadrant here in October. We will all take a look and see where we all sit there. What else is out there? We went to census data and said, "Every single county in the country, 3,100 plus of them, let us figure out how many incorporations are being formed 2024, 2025, and the first 6 months of this year." We are seeing a 14% increase in the number of corporations being formed as LLCs, as C corps. We understand clearly that a percentage of those are, I have a hair-brained idea, let us incorporate, and nothing ever happens. We know that. Some of them are formed for purposes of transactions and tax-efficient measures. We know that. That has been consistent throughout the years. What we are seeing is that growth in that demographic we are talking about.

Brian Balbirnie: They are going to publish a Magic Quadrant here in October. We will all take a look and see where we all sit there. What else is out there? We went to census data and said, "Every single county in the country, 3,100 plus of them, let us figure out how many incorporations are being formed 2024, 2025, and the first 6 months of this year." We are seeing a 14% increase in the number of corporations being formed as LLCs, as C corps. We understand clearly that a percentage of those are, I have a hair-brained idea, let us incorporate, and nothing ever happens. We know that. Some of them are formed for purposes of transactions and tax-efficient measures. We know that. That has been consistent throughout the years. What we are seeing is that growth in that demographic we are talking about.

Speaker #4: But what else is out there? So we went to census data and said, "Let's look at every single county in the country—3,100 plus of them."

Speaker #4: Let's figure out how many incorporations are being formed in 2024, 2025, and the first six months of this year. And we're seeing a 14% increase in the number of corporations being formed.

Speaker #4: As LLCs, as corps, C corps, we understand clearly that a percentage of those are, 'I have a harebrained idea, let's incorporate,' and nothing ever happens.

Speaker #4: We know that some of them are formed for purposes of transactions and tax-efficient measures. We know that. But that's been consistent throughout the years.

Speaker #4: What we're seeing is that growth in that demographic we're talking about, so we're spending a good amount of time understanding that. One of the reasons why we've been out in the space—and Steve mentioned this—investing in marketing, trade shows, and conferences, is that we're going to events that are not public company events.

Brian R. Balbirnie: We are spending a good amount of time understanding that. One of the reasons why we have been out in the space, and Steve mentioned this, investing in marketing and trade shows and conferences, we are going to events that are not public company events. That is where we spent 20 years. The last 8 months, we have been out at events that are small business expo events, that they will be in the Javits Center in New York, and there will be 8,000 potential customers there, sponsored by Verizon and all the other big brands, and we are there as the press release and communications partner. There are big opportunities for us there. That is where we see that quadrant of people moving to and looking. I do not know if it is growth just from AI, right? I know you said that there are AI startups. We are not focused on those.

Brian Balbirnie: We are spending a good amount of time understanding that. One of the reasons why we have been out in the space, and Steve mentioned this, investing in marketing and trade shows and conferences, we are going to events that are not public company events. That is where we spent 20 years. The last 8 months, we have been out at events that are small business expo events, that they will be in the Javits Center in New York, and there will be 8,000 potential customers there, sponsored by Verizon and all the other big brands, and we are there as the press release and communications partner. There are big opportunities for us there. That is where we see that quadrant of people moving to and looking. I do not know if it is growth just from AI, right? I know you said that there are AI startups. We are not focused on those.

Speaker #4: That's where we spent 20 years. The last eight months, we've been at an event that our small business expo events that they'll be in the Javits Center in New York and there's an 8,000 customers, potential customers there.

Speaker #4: Sponsored by Verizon and all the other big brands, and we're there as the press release and communications partner. So, there's big opportunities for us there.

Speaker #4: That's where we see that quadrant of people moving to and looking. So I don't know if it's growth just from AI, right? I know you said that there are AI startups.

Speaker #4: We're not focused on those. We're focused on just that generation gap of people looking for a side hustle, and also those folks with other decision makers.

Brian R. Balbirnie: We are focused on just that generation of gap of people looking for a side hustle and also those folks who are the decision-makers. They are coming in, moving guys like me out, right? The old guys. The younger people are coming in, making these decisions, and we want to be on both sides of the fence for them to have a platform that they would select. Hope I covered it there, Brock.

Brian Balbirnie: We are focused on just that generation of gap of people looking for a side hustle and also those folks who are the decision-makers. They are coming in, moving guys like me out, right? The old guys. The younger people are coming in, making these decisions, and we want to be on both sides of the fence for them to have a platform that they would select. Hope I covered it there, Brock.

Speaker #4: They're coming in, moving guys like me out, right? The old guys—the younger people are coming in, making these decisions. And we want to be on the platform that they would select.

Speaker #4: Hope I covered it, Mayor Brock.

Speaker #2: All right. Yeah, thanks for your answer. I appreciate it.

Brock Irwin: All right. Yeah. Thanks for your answer. I appreciate it.

Brock Erwin: All right. Yeah. Thanks for your answer. I appreciate it.

Speaker #4: Thank you.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Thank you.

Brian Balbirnie: Thank you.

Speaker #3: And once again, it will be star one if there are any other questions at this time. And there are no other questions from the lines at this time.

Operator 2: Once again, it will be star one if there were any other questions at this time. There were no other questions from the lines at this time. I would now like to hand the call back to Brian Balbirnie for closing remarks.

Operator: Once again, it will be star one if there were any other questions at this time. There were no other questions from the lines at this time. I would now like to hand the call back to Brian Balbirnie for closing remarks.

Speaker #3: I would now like to hand the call back to Brian Balbirnie for closing remarks.

Brian R. Balbirnie: Thank you, Paul. I appreciate it. As always, I think this has been like 14 straight quarters we have been using you specifically for our event. Like all of our customers, we love that dedicated premium solution for our public company customers. A lot to digest here today. A lot of data points that we have provided that we typically do not provide, such as market opportunities and growth. I love an opportunity to digest more with you and talk about this individually. Just shoot me a call, an email. Let us set up some time to do it. We appreciate your passion for what we are building. We appreciate your commitment for what your position is in our security, and we look forward to the rewards in the future. Thank you all for today and your time.

Brian Balbirnie: Thank you, Paul. I appreciate it. As always, I think this has been like 14 straight quarters we have been using you specifically for our event. Like all of our customers, we love that dedicated premium solution for our public company customers. A lot to digest here today. A lot of data points that we have provided that we typically do not provide, such as market opportunities and growth. I love an opportunity to digest more with you and talk about this individually. Just shoot me a call, an email. Let us set up some time to do it. We appreciate your passion for what we are building. We appreciate your commitment for what your position is in our security, and we look forward to the rewards in the future. Thank you all for today and your time.

Speaker #4: Thank you, Paul. I appreciate it. As always, I think this has been, like, 14 straight quarters we've been using you specifically for our event. And, like all of our customers, we love that dedicated premium solution for our public company customers.

Speaker #4: A lot to digest here today. A lot of data points that we've provided that we typically don't provide, such as market opportunities and growth.

Speaker #4: I'd love an opportunity to digest more with you and talk about this individually. Just shoot me a call or an email. Let's set up some time to do it.

Speaker #4: We appreciate your passion for what we're building. We appreciate your commitment to your position in our security. And we look forward to the rewards in the future.

Speaker #4: Thank you all for today and your time.

Operator 2: Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time. Thank you for your participation.