Amazon Is Laying Off Wondery Employees as It Rethinks Its Podcast Enterprise

Amazon is reportedly shedding greater than 100 workers because it overhauls its podcast enterprise amid main shifts within the business.

Bloomberg first reported on Monday that Amazon is laying off about 110 staff from its Wondery podcast studio and shifting some exhibits to Audible, its different audio-focused subsidiary. As a part of the shake-up, Wondery CEO Jen Sargent is leaving the corporate.

The reorganization comes because the podcast business faces its personal “video killed the radio star” second, with creator-led, video-based exhibits surging in recognition and thus being extra monetizable.

The e-commerce big despatched Gizmodo the next assertion concerning the modifications:

The podcast panorama has advanced considerably prior to now few years, significantly with the rise of video-forward, creator-led content material. These modifications mirror that evolution and can streamline how Wondery integrates additional into Amazon. By making these modifications, we are able to higher assist creators in monetizing their content material throughout a number of channels, assist them increase their model IP, and simplify the method for advertisers whereas making content material extra accessible to audiences wherever they like to devour it. This evolution builds on Wondery’s early success with video-forward exhibits and positions us to raised serve creators, clients, and advertisers.

In a memo to employees obtained by Deadline, Steve Growth, Amazon’s vice chairman of audio, Twitch, and video games, stated the rise of video podcasting has created “totally different viewers wants” and requires “distinct discovery, progress, and monetization methods” in comparison with conventional audio-only narrative podcasts.

Within the letter, Growth stated that Amazon is reorganizing Wondery with its narrative podcasts like Dr. Demise and Enterprise Wars shifting to Audible. The studio’s chief content material officer, Marshall Lewy, can even be headed to Audible.

For Wondery’s creator-led exhibits like Dax Shepard’s Armchair Professional and Jason and Travis Kelce’s New Tops, a brand new Creator Providers crew underneath Amazon’s Expertise Providers division can be taking on. This crew will proceed working the creator-focused podcast studio underneath the Wondery model, working carefully with a choose group of high creators to increase their audiences and deepen their partnership with Amazon.

Bloomberg highlighted LeBron James, who hosts the podcast Thoughts the Sport and has served as a Prime Day spokesperson, as a blueprint for this new method.

Amazon initially acquired Wondery in 2021 for about $300 million, in accordance with media studies. At its peak, the studio noticed a few of its hit podcasts like Soiled John tailored into TV exhibits.

However Amazon isn’t the one firm that has poured huge cash into podcasting. Final yr, Spotify reportedly signed a $250 million deal to proceed managing sponsorships for Joe Rogan’s podcast. In the meantime, SiriusXM paid $125 million to poach Alex Cooper’s Name Her Daddy podcast from Spotify.

As competitors has elevated within the business, there have already been some losers too. In June, Audacy, the radio big owned by a gaggle led by Soros Fund Administration, shut down its podcast-focused Pineapple Avenue Studios.

Public media can also be dealing with challenges. The Company for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which helps fund Nationwide Public Radio (NPR), a pioneer in podcasting, is about to wind down operations and lay off most of its employees by September 30. This transfer comes as President Donald Trump has reduce the nonprofit’s funding.