Amazon Splits Up The Wondery Podcast Network And Lays Off About 110 Employees

Four years aft Amazon’s acquisition of podcast web Wondery, nan tech elephantine is dismantling its $300 cardinal acquisition and reorganizing various audio properties into abstracted teams astatine nan company. As first reported by Bloomberg, this reorg will spot nan workplace suffer astir 110 employees, and CEO Jen Sargent is departing nan company.

Amazon told Bloomberg it will proceed to nutrient podcasts, though their spot wrong nan institution will beryllium restructured. The much narrative-focused podcasts nether nan Wondery brand, specified arsenic American Scandal and Business Wars, will merge pinch Amazon’s Audible team. Some of these podcasts will clasp Wondery branding, and nan Wondery Plus app will stay active. Subscribers to Wondery Plus get early entree to immoderate podcast episodes done nan app, though it's unclear astatine this constituent what functionalities will stay successful nan app, and which will beryllium absorbed by Audible.

Meanwhile, nan celebrity-hosted shows specified arsenic New Heights pinch Jason and Travis Kelce and Armchair Expert pinch Dax Shepard will beryllium rolled into a caller squad that Amazon is calling Creator Services. According to Bloomberg, a main attraction of this caller squad will beryllium trading ample sponsorships. These titles are portion of a increasing inclination toward video podcasts that person helped make YouTube nan go-to platform for podcast consumption.

Steve Boom, VP for Audio, Twitch and Games astatine Amazon, addressed nan changes in a memo (published by Deadline) sent to Amazon employees. "The podcast scenery has evolved importantly complete nan past fewer years. As video podcasting has grown successful popularity, we person learned that creator-led, video-integrated shows person different assemblage needs and require chopped discovery, maturation and monetization strategies compared pinch audio-first, communicative series," he wrote.

Employees who were fto spell arsenic portion of these changes were notified Monday, though Amazon spokesperson Alice Zhou told The Verge that "many of nan impacted employees" would beryllium moved to "other parts of Amazon."