8pit Rio Tinto joins partnership to study low-carbon aluminum production in FinlandMumbai: The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has released the exam schedules for Maharashtra's Class 10 and 12 board exams in 2025. The Class 10 exams are slated to commence on February 21 and conclude on March 17, 2025. Similarly, the Class 12 board exams will be held from February 11 to March 11, 2025. Both the exams will be held in two shifts: first shift from 11 am to 2 pm and second shift from 3 pm to 6 pm. The number of students registered for the Maharashtra HSC exams (12th board) stands at 15,13,909, of them 7,60,046 are registered in science stream, 3,81,982 in arts, and the remaining 3,29,905 in commerce. For class 10 (SSC exams), the exams will start with the first language (Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, etc.) paper in the first shift and the second language (German and French) paper in the second shift on February 21. While Maths part-1 will be held on March 5, it’ll be followed by Maths part-2 on March 7. Science and Technology part-1 and part-2 papers will be held on March 10 and March 12 respectively, and the exams will culminate with Social Science paper-1 and paper-2 on March 15 and March 17 respectively. Some experts have welcomed the move of scheduling the exams “10 days ahead of the previous years”. “Since exams will begin 10 days in advance, naturally the results will also be declared 10 days prior to the previous years. So, those students who may fail in one or two or three subjects, they will get 10 extra days to prepare for the supplementary exams,” Mahendra Ganpule, the former president of the state’s headmasters association, told the Free Press Journal. It is worth noting that the revised State Curriculum Framework for School Education (SCF-SE) had in October proposed that even if students fail in class 10 Maths and Science papers, and they score between 20-33 (34 being the passing marks), can still take admissions in class 11 in streams that do not have these subjects in Class XI as part of the curriculum.

Deion Sanders started to set the table for the next era of Colorado football Wednesday when he signed 14 new high school players to his program for 2025, including the team’s potential starting quarterback next season − Julian “JuJu” Lewis from Carrollton High in Georgia. All will be part of his third big roster remake at Colorado, this time without two of the best players in school history – two-way star Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders, son of the head coach. The recruiting class currently ranks No. 37 nationally according to 247Sports' composite rankings, which is fourth in the Big 12 Conference behind TCU, Baylor and Kansas State. Texas ranks No. 1 overall, as of Wednesday afternoon. But high school recruiting is only part of the strategy under Sanders. The transfer portal for transfer recruits opens on Monday, when Sanders vows to “hit that portal like it hadn’t been hit before.” “My biggest impression overall is that high school recruiting was taken a lot more seriously this year after he loaded up on the two portal classes (since 2023) and really got some elite players in this class,” said Adam Gorney, national recruiting director for Rivals.com. “It wasn’t just filling out a roster on top of the portal guys... Obviously, JuJu Lewis is the star of the show here.” Signing JuJu Lewis shows Sanders planting roots at CU Lewis has led his high school team to a 13-0 record this year and plans to enroll in January. His signing on Wednesday also seems to answer a popular question in college football over the past 15 months: Does Deion Sanders plan on leaving Colorado anytime soon , especially after his two sons on the team leave after this season? It’s doubtful Lewis would have signed with Colorado if he was. Lewis committed to Southern California last year but visited other campuses before announcing his decision last month to come to Colorado, where the Buffaloes (9-3) will begin preparations for a bowl game later this month, likely the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28 . “For Deion to do this was huge, because I think he had to convince JuJu and his family that he was staying in Boulder,” Gorney told USA TODAY Sports. JuJu Lewis also getting reinforcements at Colorado The scary part for Colorado opponents is that Lewis could end up being even better than Shedeur, at least according to the recruiting ratings. In 2021, Shedeur Sanders ranked No. 26 in the nation as a quarterback recruit, according to 247Sports' composite rankings. He originally committed to play for Florida Atlantic before deciding to play for his father at Jackson State and then Colorado, where he leads the nation in completion percentage at 74.2%. Lewis ranks No. 6 nationally as a quarterback, according to the same ranking service. He’s getting some big bodies to protect him in Boulder, too. Colorado signed three offensive linemen Wednesday, including tackle Carde Smith, a 6-foot-5, 300-pound blocker from Mobile, Alabama. He switched his commitment from USC to join Juju at CU and ranks as the No. 18 offensive tackle, according to Rivals. “Can’t wait to get up there in Boulder and get to work,” Smith posted in a social media video Wednesday. Deion Sanders' high school recruiting strategy Deion Sanders has developed a reputation as a transfer portal power , not a high school recruiting juggernaut. His transfer class for 2024 ranked No. 1, according to Rivals. He opened the season with 39 new scholarship transfer players from other four-year colleges, compared with only 11 new high school scholarship recruits. That high school class last year ranked No. 95 nationally, largely because of its small size, according to 247Sports' composite. “You know we don’t take a lot of high school players and the ones that we take, we want them to play immediately,” Sanders said at a news conference last week. “We want them to produce.” In his first season as head coach, Sanders started the 2023 season with 17 new high school scholarship players compared to 47 new scholarship transfer recruits from other four-year colleges. Of those 17 high school scholarship recruits, only nine remained a year later. It adds to the pro culture of the team, with rookies needing to be in top form to stick around with so many older free agents coming in as transfers. “We got what we want,” Sanders said last week about his newest class of high school recruits. He signed recruits from high schools in seven states, including his home state of Florida, where he landed edge rusher London Merritt from the IMG Academy after he previously committed to Ohio State. Merritt ranked No. 13 at that position, according to 247Sports' composite. Sanders also signed three receiver prospects Wednesday to help fill part of the void left by Hunter, who will play in the NFL next season . Did Deion Sanders lose any recruits? Yes, one recruit committed to play for Colorado in April but didn’t sign with the Buffaloes Wednesday: cornerback Alex Graham of Cass Technical High School in Detroit. Graham announced Wednesday he would sign with USC instead. His decision dropped Colorado’s national recruiting ranking a few spots, but that’s not a concern for Sanders, who can find other options in the transfer portal. Colorado's high school football signees for 2025 The recruits who enroll at Colorado in January will be able to practice with the team before the Buffs play in a bowl game. These are the recruits the university confirmed as signed on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period, which runs through Friday: Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer . Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.comA nonprofit leader who supports at-risk New Orleans youth. A social worker who fosters animals. A postdoctoral researcher. They are among the roughly 1,540 people whose sentences were commuted or who were pardoned by President Joe Biden on Thursday in what was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history . But not everyone was pleased by Biden’s decisions. A Republican state senator said a commutation for a woman who stole $54 million from a small town in Illinois was “a slap in the face” to residents. The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania said Biden "got it absolutely wrong” when he commuted the sentence of a judge who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks. Here are some of their stories: Fulton was pardoned after pleading guilty to participating in a payroll fraud scheme while serving as a New Orleans middle school teacher in the early 2000s. She was convicted of a felony and sentenced to three years of probation in 2008. Fulton, who has two children and works as an elementary school teacher, said that for years she had lived with “a sense of embarrassment and shame” about the felony conviction. Even though she completed a master’s degree in educational leadership in 2017, Fulton felt that her criminal record disqualified her from applying for principal positions she felt she could handle. “The conviction has served as a mental barrier for me, limiting my ability to live a full life,” Fulton said. Nearly a decade after she first applied for a presidential pardon, Fulton this week received a phone call informing her that it had been granted. “It was astonishing for me, I wasn’t expecting a call,” Fulton said, adding that the pardon will enable her to explore more career opportunities. A White House news release commended Fulton as “someone who goes above and beyond for her community.” For years, Fulton has helped lead a nonprofit supporting at-risk New Orleans youth with hot meals, clothing and shelter and mental health referrals. Doyle applied for a pardon six years ago. It had been so long that she had all but forgotten about it — until Wednesday. “I was in shock,” Doyle said of the call she received from a Justice Department pardon attorney. “And honored.” Doyle, who was once addicted to meth, had pleaded guilty to drug possession and check forging charges when she was 24. She served more than two years in state and federal prison. Released in 2006, Doyle resolved to stay clean. She started a family, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and now works as a social worker with a behavioral health center. Doyle applied for a pardon in 2018 and heard nothing until 2020, when the FBI reached out — and the vetting began. “They talked to my boss, my boss’ boss, they talked to my mother’s boss, they called my doctors," Doyle said. “Just pretty much anybody that had any type of relationship with me in the past 20 years they contacted.” After the vetting was over, she would have to wait some more: four years, it turned out. “I just want people to know that are in the throes of addiction, or families to know that when they have somebody in their family that is addicted, that there is hope,” Doyle said Thursday. “This has just brought so much joy to me and my family and is just the continuation of my recovery.” She has five children and three grandchildren, volunteers in her community, fosters animals and competes in roller derby. Crundwell was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison in 2013 for stealing about $54 million over two decades when she was in charge of finances for Dixon, Illinois. She was released to a halfway house program in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic before moving to home confinement. Biden’s commutation releases Crundwell from any restrictions. Paul Gaziano, a lawyer who represented Crundwell in federal court, declined to comment Thursday. Dixon Mayor Glen Hughes said he believes most of the town is probably stunned, and maybe even angry, that Biden would provide clemency to Crundwell. Republican state Sen. Andrew Chesney called Biden’s act “nothing short of a slap in the face to the people of Dixon.” Dixon, best known as the childhood home of President Ronald Reagan, sued auditors and a bank after Crundwell’s theft was revealed and recovered $40 million in settlements. Crundwell, who was a horse breeder, told a judge in 2020 that more than $15 million was repaid from the sale of her horses and other assets. “I am going to do everything possible to make up for my mistakes," she told the judge in a handwritten letter that described various health problems. “I have taken responsibility for my actions since the first day.” Conahan was sentenced to 17 years in prison for helping orchestrate one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history: a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks. Biden’s decision to commute his sentence angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to the families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. Conahan had already served the vast majority of his sentence, which was handed down in 2011. “I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said Friday. A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney who recently represented Conahan, the former judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of Conahan’s who built and co-owned two for-profit lockups. Sandy Fonzo, whose son killed himself at age 23 after Ciavarella locked him up as a teen, called Conahan’s commutation an “injustice.” “I am shocked and I am hurt,” Fonzo said in a statement provided to The Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power." The Juvenile Law Center, which represented plaintiffs in a $200 million civil judgment against Conahan and Ciavarella, said it “supported President Biden’s actions” but wants to see the “same kind of compassion and mercy” extended to juvenile defendants around the country. When he pleaded guilty in 2010, Conahan apologized to the youths he had hurt. “The system is not corrupt,” Conahan said at the time. “I was corrupt.” Becklin was 21 when she got into trouble, which she said was due to trying to get money to support her drug addiction. She pleaded guilty to a nonviolent felony charge for failing to provide information to police about a 2007 bank robbery. She served four months in a halfway house, four months of home confinement and three years of probation. She found out she was pregnant after she’d been out of custody for about a year. She said she had her “aha moment” when her son was 1 year old. “And I was living at home with my parents. I had, like, no job, no education, no future,” Becklin said. “Had a felony on my record. I had substance use history, you know, all these things. And he was 1. And I just remember, like looking at him and realizing that his whole life was, like, really dependent on what I did with mine.” Within days, she said, she enrolled at a community college. She recently earned her doctoral degree in comparative molecular biosciences at the University of Minnesota. For her doctorate, she used stem cell biology and genetic engineering to better understand how pediatric cancers grow and develop. She’s still working in the cell and gene therapy space, now as a postdoctoral researcher at the university. The White House noted in its announcement that Becklin also mentors currently and previously incarcerated people who are seeking to pursue higher education. She said she does it as part of a program called Prison to Professionals. They help guide people on the unique issues they’ll face in higher education and provide them with a support network. She said she still doesn’t know exactly how being pardoned and having her record cleared will affect her future. “I think there was a point in my life where it really mattered if I, like, had a certain career path or if I did that. But I have found that, kind of wherever I am, I find my purpose and my need there. And, you know, it’s kind of a beautiful way to live,” she said. ___ Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans, Ed White in Detroit, Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyo., Michael Rubinkam in Pennsylvania; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Wash., contributed to this report.

Opinion: Ruling in San Jose State volleyball case reveals farce of transgender hysteriaRon Paul co-founded the Chicago-based food service research and consulting firm Technomic and was a widely recognized expert on food industry trends. “He was an innovator, coining many new restaurant industry terms, including ‘fast casual,’ ‘home meal replacement’ and ‘convenient meal solutions,’” said former Technomic President Darren Tristano. Paul, 90, died of a brief illness Nov. 8 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said his daughter, Karen Lucente. He had lived in the Streeterville neighborhood for more than 40 years. Born Ronald Neale Paul in Chicago, Paul grew up on the West Side and graduated from Austin High School. He received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern University in 1957 and an MBA a year later. Paul taught statistics for a time at Roosevelt University and worked for a business unit at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Research Institute. In 1966, Paul teamed with a colleague, Aaron Lebedow, to form Technomic. Paul’s area of oversight within Technomic was to collect data and to build a database of information involving food service companies, while Lebedow led a group providing market planning and strategic planning to non-food companies such as General Electric and Westinghouse that eventually also worked with overseas clients. “He did a hell of a job in creating that business, and he was well-known in the industry, and the business was well-known in the industry,” Lebedow said. “He really built a special kind of practice in that area.” Lebedow said that what Paul did well was to create an annual study of trends in the food service industry for restaurant clients. Paul also “spoke at every major event” in the food service world, Lebedow said, and clients thought Paul “walked on water.” “He accomplished an enormous amount in the food service industry,” Lebedow said. “He was well-known and well-respected and someone who could guide the growth of the industry, and he had this wonderful program that he could repeat every year.” In 1987, the two parts of Technomic split, with Paul and Lebedow going their separate ways. Paul continued to work to expand Technomic’s food service business, generating consumer surveys and working to predict food trends. Paul also enjoyed mentoring younger executives, helping to serve food service clients and speaking at conferences, his daughter said. Paul had a reputation for walking the halls of Technomic, checking in on his employees and being genuinely curious on how they were doing, Tristano said. “Ron was the consummate entrepreneur and mentor,” Tristano said. “He believed in growing his business by hiring, supporting and retaining good people. His remarks always included the question, ‘What can I do to support you?’” One of the ways Paul worked to understand food service trends was to dine out frequently, Tristano said. He also readily made himself available to reporters seeking comments on the food industry. In 1999, Paul reacted to the increasing dine-and-shop trend in specialty retailers, telling the Tribune that having bars or cafes in upscale boutiques on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills or on Madison Avenue in New York made good business sense. “It’s a throwback to shopping as an elegant experience,” Paul told the Tribune. “Giorgio Armani has one in some of their shops. It says, ‘We know how to treat our customers better.’” In analyzing restaurant trends, even Paul had his limits, however. In a 2010 Tribune article on restaurant names, he noted that one subject he and Technomic wouldn’t touch was evaluating and choosing names for eateries, saying it was “too personal.” “Take that Chicago place, (the West Loop restaurant) Girl & The Goat. I mean, how would you counter that anyway?” Paul told the Tribune. Paul ran Technomic until 2015, when he sold the firm to Oakbrook Terrace-based Winsight, a business-to-business media and information company. A first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, Paul is survived by his wife of 41 years, Georgeann; two other daughters, Lisa Renaud and Brenda Bradley; a sister, Barbara Rish; seven grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. Services were held. Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

We’ve got our Chelsea back – Enzo Maresca loving chants from fans after win

Rays change schedule to avoid too many hot, muggy dates in TampaATLANTA — On Jan. 18 and 19 the AT&T Playoff Playlist Live! will be held at State Farm Arena in advance of the College Football Playoff national championship on Jan. 20. The star-studded lineup was announced Thursday at a news conference at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Performances will include Lil Wayne and GloRilla on Saturday; and Camila Cabello, Myles Smith and Knox on Sunday. On game day, the Allstate Championship Tailgate, taking place just outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the Home Depot Backyard, will feature country acts on the Capital One Music Stage, including global superstar Kane Brown and iHeartCountry “On The Verge” artist Ashley Cooke. The concerts are just two of the festivities visiting fans can enjoy in the days leading up to the big game. The fan experience for both ticket holders and the general public has been a focus for event planners. All weekend long, an estimated 100,000 people from across the country are expected to attend fan events preceding kickoff. People are also reading... Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams making furniture in Alexander County again Clemson, Appalachian State signees lead 12 Iredell boys basketball players to watch Statesville survives test from Franklin in high school football playoff opener Iredell County bridge to close for $1.2 replacement project Lake Norman residents voice concerns with Marshall Steam Station changes Believers bought airplane for dead preacher thinking he’d rise from grave to fly in it MerMade: Workspace opens in Statesville, caters to artists, crafters North Iredell volleyball players Flowers, Gaither named All-State With supermajority in NC House gone, Iredell's Republican lawmakers talk changes, challenges Catawba native Christina Eagle appears on season 26 of 'The Voice' Basketball transfer Patterson back home at West Iredell to 'bring in some wins' Statesville native's book offers clues to 5 hidden treasures Iredell County woman wins first $150,000 top prize in new game 16 siblings were to be separated until Cornerstone Christian Academy staff stepped up in Statesville Statesville embraces underdog role in rematch with defending champ Hickory “It will be an opportunity for fans of all ages to come together to sample what college football is all about, and you don’t have to have a ticket to the game to be a part of it,” said Bill Hancock, executive director of the CFP in a press release. “We’ve worked closely with the Atlanta Football Host Committee to develop fan-friendly events that thousands will enjoy come January.” On Saturday, Jan. 18, Playoff Fan Central will open at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. The free, family-friendly experience will include games, clinics, pep rallies, special guest appearances, autograph signings and exhibits celebrating college football and its history. That day, fans can also attend Media Day, presented by Great Clips, which will feature one-hour sessions with student-athletes and coaches from each of the College Football Playoff national championship participating teams. ESPN and social media giants X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok will be taping live broadcasts from the event. On Sunday, Jan. 19, the Trophy Trot, both a 5K and 10K race, will wind its way through the streets of downtown Atlanta. Each Trophy Trot participant will receive a T-shirt and finisher’s medal. Participants can register at atlantatrackclub.org . On Sunday evening, the Georgia Aquarium will host the Taste of the Championship dining event, which offers attendees the opportunity to indulge in food and drink prepared by local Atlanta chefs. This premium experience serves as an elevated exploration of local cuisine on the eve of the national championship. Tickets to the Taste of the Championship event are available on etix.com . Atlanta is the first city ever to repeat as host for the CFP national championship. The playoff was previously held in Atlanta in 2018. “We are honored to be the first city to repeat as host for the CFP national championship and look forward to welcoming college football fans from around the country in January,” said Dan Corso, president of the Atlanta Sports Council and Atlanta Football Host Committee. “This event gives us another opportunity to showcase our incredible city.” The College Football Playoff is the event that crowns the national champion in college football. The quarterfinals and semifinals rotate annually among six bowl games — the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Capital One Orange Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential and the Allstate Sugar Bowl. This year’s quarterfinals will take place on Dec. 31, 2024 and Jan. 1, 2025, while the semifinals will be Jan. 9-10, 2025. The CFP national championship will be Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. For additional information on the College Football Playoff, visit CollegeFootballPlayoff.com . Get local news delivered to your inbox!

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As part of The Drum’s B2B Focus , the Dow Jones executive shares insights from her own experience of collaborating with finance and revenue teams to not just secure budget, but to drive broader business goals together. Dow Jones CMO makes a case for closer collaboration between marketers and finance executives in B2B organizations / The Drum Today, just 20% of CMOs surveyed by the CMO Council and KPMG report having a truly collaborative relationship with their CFOs – and more than 25% say their relationship with the finance team is “indifferent,” and 7% categorize it as “hesitant.” It’s clear that marketing leaders, for the large part, feel siloed from their counterparts in finance – a problematic finding considering that CFOs control the budgets that marketers so desperately require. This year, marketing budgets will shrink by an average of 15% from last year, according to research from Gartner. More than ever, CMOs and CFOs should be working in tandem to achieve shared goals. That’s the perspective of Sherry Weiss, at least. Weiss is the CMO of Dow Jones and its subsidiary the Wall Street Journal, where she manages both B2C and B2B marketing programs, and collaborates closely with Dow Jones’ CFO Jared DiPalma and CROs Josh Stinchcomb and David Martin. Two years into the job, she previously helmed strategic marketing efforts on the consumer financial service team at Citigroup. Last month, Weiss joined me onstage at The Drum’s B2B World Fest 2024 in Chicago, where she opined on how marketers can maximize impact through closer collaboration with their colleagues in finance and sales. Here’s what she had to say. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Tell us a bit about your remit at Dow Jones. We have a very large enterprise side of the house, where we have deep verticals for risk and compliance products, energy, wealth and investing. Also, we have our consumer brands, the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, Investor’s Business Daily [and more]. It’s been a great two years. In your view, what misconceptions do you think C-suiters have about the CMO? And on the flip side, what misconceptions do CMOs frequently have about CFOs and CROs? For the marketers in the room, oftentimes we may feel like there is a misconception that we are all about big, bold ideas and creativity for the sake of creativity, but we are not able to tie that back to the actual running of the business or to a revenue metric. And then that turns into, ‘Okay, CFOs just see us as cost centers,’ for instance. Or, ‘CFOs just see us as [the folks] doing pens and posters, and they’re not willing to invest in us.’ And then if you look at a CRO, [marketers think they believe], ‘Well, we own the conversion. What is this [program or campaign] driving? And why should I advocate to have investment put into marketing if I need extra sales incentives?’ There are all these different misconceptions that can lead one to think that [C-suiters] are not all on the same team and driving towards the same goal. And all of that is, frankly, bogus. And some of those misconceptions can be changed if you just change the vocabulary you’re using to describe what you’re trying to do with your partners. ​ What are your tips for budgeting with the CFO? I talk to my CFO probably every other day. You have to stay very close. And back that misconception around, ‘The CFO is going to be reluctant to invest in marketing,’ or, ‘[Marketing is] the first area where the CFO is going to cut when under pressure’ – the first thing is: you’ve got to build a strong relationship. And [you need to] position yourself as: ‘I’m not a cost center – I’m a growth center.’ [You have to determine] ‘How am I viewed as a growth officer?’ Our CFO, [fortunately], views investment in marketing as, ‘How do I drive growth, and where do I put my next best penny?’ So we spent a lot of time talking about that. Measurement is really important. In the beginning, it’s hard to measure, so you have to set expectations around, ‘Okay, we’re not going to know if this works until X amount of time.’ The other thing I would strongly recommend is: don’t ask for everything at once. You come in and say, ‘Alright, invest in me,’ and then you have this huge ticket size and you can’t measure [the impacts of your initiatives], and you’re like, ‘Believe in me!,’ it’s not going to go well. So what we’ve been doing over the last two years is that every year I’m like, ‘Seed fund me. Let me ... focus on this. Do some incremental investment here. We’ll measure it, and then next budget cycle, if it works, reinvest in me.’ We have been pretty successful in that. It reduces the risk and it helps you also make sure that you’re proving to your CRO, your CFO and the CEO that your strategy is working. ​ Can you share a real-world example of an instance in which collaboration with your CRO and or CFO led to a meaningful outcome that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise? As I mentioned earlier, I wear two hats, so I am also the CMO of the Wall Street Journal, which is a B2C go-to-market [product]. And I actually come out of a B2C background – I was in consumer financial services. With that [kind of role], you own the end conversion. So, being able to take language around how your marketing is driving revenue is incredibly important to be able to get investment from the CFO and buy-in from the CRO. This year, we’re going through a transformation on the B2B side of the house. We have significant growth targets in our business intelligence part of the business, and we know that we need to invest more in marketing. So how we worked through getting that investment when we didn’t have the metrics to show for it quite yet was, it was in collaboration with our CFO and our CRO, we sat down, we looked at the sales targets that need to be driven in that upcoming budget cycle. We brought a lot of information to the table that helped people think through buyers’ habits – like, we know that by the time a buyer hits at one of our sales staff, they are already about two-thirds through their buying journey, and most of the upfront information that they receive is via digital channels [like] website content or social media. And that’s where marketing plays a role. So, in trying to sell that [we] explain, ‘Look, if you invest a little bit here, a little bit there, it will help you close the deal. And here’s how we’ll measure it.’ And then the other thing that we really had to ... work through was that we were very lead-generation focused – ‘What is marketing doing to drive leads?’ We were not focused specifically on, ‘What is marketing doing to kind of expand the relationship within your existing customer base?’ But we all know it’s easier to expand a relationship with someone versus landing a new lead. So we worked with the CFO and the CRO to sell this idea of moving ... to an account-based and industry-based marketing approach. And then in order to get the money, we had to lay out, ‘Okay, this is the plan that we’re going to do, and here’s how we're going to measure the impact.’ ​ Speaking of measurement, what metrics should the C-suite focus on in order to help evidence marketing’s value in the overall financial performance of the business? The true north is revenue. That’s what we’re here to do, both as marketers and in support of our sales organizations. But we all know it’s really difficult to say, ‘This marketing campaign, or this marketing strategy, drove X in the B2B area of increase in revenue.’ So we have our eye on revenue, but then we have some supporting KPIs, that we’re tracking. We still track lead gen and the quality of those leads. We also are tracking retention rates ... in what we consider our high-value client accounts, are we seeing an increase in retention rates based on ... the marketing activity that we are engaging in? We are tracking expansion within an account – if we, as marketers, have engaged with a certain account, have we actually seen our book of business with them grow? That’s another area that we’re tracking. ​ Something I hear a lot in the industry is that the traditional funnel is collapsing – or that it’s irrelevant today. Do you feel that that’s true, and as a B2B CMO, how does your perspective of the marketing funnel play into how you’re thinking about collaborating with your colleagues in sales and finance? When I came into this role, I really did not have much experience in B2B, so I’m just gonna be really honest – I was a little intimidated. This is very different than what I’ve worked with before, and luckily, I have very strong B2B leadership on my team that kind of helped bring me along. But what I recognized pretty quickly is that the go-to-market [approach] is different, but the skills and how you need to think about things are not wildly different. And your end user is still a person. It’s just [about considering], ‘How do you engage with that end user?’ In the areas where we think about B2C go-to-market – like the Wall Street Journal – and then our B2B go-to-market with Dow Jones, it’s becoming even more important in both areas to be leaning into brand for a variety of reasons. You can’t – in either area – depend so much on the legacy referral ecosystem to get people to your site to explain who you are, and so having people understand who you are from a more ... emotional level of like, ‘What does Dow Jones bring to you as a business?’ is incredibly important. It’s: ‘Why should you do business with Dow Jones?’ versus, ‘I buy this product from Dow Jones.’ We’ve been thinking through that a lot. The other thing that we’re bringing over from our B2C skillset is engagement marketing. On the B2C side of the house, in general, marketers – especially if you’re in a subscription or credit card business – you have large engagement and retention teams, and there are strategies that you use to drive your end user to start using your product frequently. [That’s] because with usage, you have a higher likelihood to retain your customer. With our enterprise businesses, that’s a little bit harder, because ... you’re distant from [the end user], but we are standing up our engagement marketing teams and strategies to work with our partners to help us engage the end user on that end as well. So we look very closely at usage on our products – is it increasing? Who is using it? If we’re seeing usage drop, how do we work with our clients to drive usage up? That’s another renewed focus for us. Of course, we have to talk about AI and tech. Are there any trends or emerging technologies that you’re really excited about – and particularly any that might make marketing and sales collaboration more efficient in the coming years? In the last year, I’ve built out a data and analytics team within the marketing team, and we’ve taken a lot of practices [from] consumer financial services ... We used heavily predictive models on the B2C side of the house to determine, ‘If you invest X amount in this segment or this marketing strategy, what would be the outcome?’ And [with that information], you’d be able to then figure out, ‘How do I want to solve for in-year revenue or five-year revenue?’ We’re currently building out some tools and forecasting that would also help us do that on the on the B2B side of the house by leveraging AI. [If, for example, you] have $2m worth of budget, I have information around the sales cycle, I have information around macro trends, I have information around the cost to be in certain channels, how do you actually start building models that would help you figure out where to spend your next best marketing dollar to drive a return? That’s one area where we’re really excited about AI – and it’s in benefit of both sales ... as well as my team. Looking ahead, what qualities are going to be the most important for B2B CMOs to embody in order to ensure effective collaboration with their sales and marketing counterparts? The most important quality is [to] put yourself in the shoes of your partner, and how they are viewing the business in the world – and then change how you talk to them and change how you engage with them based on that meaning. Oftentimes, we can all get caught up in what we understand as vocabulary for marketers – ‘awareness,’ ‘consideration.’ I’ve gotten this advice a few times [to not] use those words, because ... it doesn’t resonate. So what does your CRO care about? What language does your CRO need? Or how do they talk to you? And how do you then think about, ‘Here’s what I can do to help you drive your goals’ [while speaking] in the language that they understand. Same with the CFO – how do you really speak with data to be able to explain what you’re doing? Oftentimes, it’s the same strategy, but it’s different words. You can’t just sit there and be like, ‘Well, this is going to drive awareness and consideration.’ No, [explain instead], ‘This will help people understand who you are by the time they get to your salesperson and help your conversion go quicker.’ Something along those lines. That’s really important. And B2B marketers are going to have to start really figuring out [that] your end user is not just a corporation – it’s a buyer, it’s a person, it’s a human. So how do you humanize your offering and who you are? Watch the full interview with Sherry Weiss . For more, sign up for The Drum’s daily newsletter here .Marvell Technology Reaches $100 Billion Valuation After Earnings Beat And Amazon Deal

PlayStation CEOs claim that AI will never replace the “human touch” of video game developersKARACHI: Pakistan-based technology-driven fashion startup, LAAM Technologies has successfully raised $5.5 million in seed funding, aiming to elevate the South Asian internet marketplace fashion platform to a global stage. In a post on LinkedIn on Thursday, Faisal Aftab, Managing Partner at Zayn VC, said “Thrilled to announce that Zayn VC has co-led a $5.5M seed round in LAAM Technologies alongside Disrupt.com.” Ecosystem report: amid dwindling startup funding, i2i looks to offer insights This funding round also saw participation from Graph Ventures, Mentors Fund, and tech leaders from Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and more, he added. “LAAM’s ability to elevate South Asian fashion onto the global stage while empowering local artisans and sellers is commendable. We believe LAAM has a unique opportunity to transform how South Asian fashion is perceived and accessed globally. We’re proud to support their journey” Aftab added in the post. Refereeing to the development at the launch of the Pakistan Startup Ecosystem Report by Invest2Innovate in Karachi, Kalsoom Lakhani, Founder at I2I & GP at I2I Ventures, said the fundraising by LAAM Technologies at $5.5 million has totaled the disclosed financing to Pakistani startups at $42.5 million in the outgoing year 2024. Aftab further said LAAM has established itself as the premier platform for South Asian fashion, curating an unmatched collection of over 100,000 items from 1,000 plus brands – “making it the largest platform of its kind globally.” Other officials related to startups ecosystem said the development suggests that good investment days are returning to Pakistan with return of stability in the domestic economy. Danish Elahi, CEO, Elahi Group of Companies, said “I am bullish for startups in 2025.” He said this in the backdrop of a dramatic decline in funding to Pakistani startups at $74 million in in 2023 from a peak of $355 million in 2022. He said the deceleration in inflation reading and cut in interest rate on bank financing to businesses would help revive investment climate in the country. Logistics and Fintech startups are expected to mobilize significant investment, going forward. LAAM Technologies said on its LinkedIn post that building Pakistan’s E-commerce ecosystem through cutting-edge technology involves leveraging the latest innovations to create a seamless, efficient, and scalable online marketplace.Alarm in France over fate of detained French-Algerian writer