{"id":15858,"date":"2025-08-05T21:04:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=15858"},"modified":"2025-08-05T21:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T21:04:19","slug":"audible-takes-charge-of-wondery-podcast-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=15858","title":{"rendered":"Audible takes charge of Wondery podcast shows"},"content":{"rendered":"
Amazon.com is restructuring the Wondery podcast studio by shifting its award-winning narrative podcasts such as Business Wars to Audible and consolidating creator-led shows into a new unit, according to a memo seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n

About 110 employees will be laid off as part of the process and many will transition to other parts of Amazon, the company said in an emailed statement on Monday.<\/p>\n

Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the<\/p>\n

Wondery CEO Jen Sargent will also depart the company following a transition period, the memo said.<\/p>\n

Intense competition, high costs and a growing preference for creator-led video content have prompted audio streaming companies including Spotify to diversify their podcasts to attract more users.<\/p>\n

“As video podcasting has grown in popularity, we have learned that creator-led, video-integrated shows have different audience needs and require distinct discovery, growth and monetisation strategies compared to audio-first, narrative series,” Steve Boom, vice president of audio, Twitch and games at Amazon, wrote in the memo.<\/p>\n

Wondery was acquired by Amazon in 2021 and has seen podcast revenue quadruple since then as the studio expanded its slate to include video podcasts and creator-driven series, according to the memo.<\/p>\n

“This isn’t just about layoffs \u2014\u00a0it’s the collapse of a podcast strategy that couldn’t keep pace with video-led rival platforms like YouTube and Spotify,” said eMarketer analyst Grace Harmon.<\/p>\n

Under the new structure, Wondery’s narrative podcast studio \u2014\u00a0home to shows such as Dr. Death and American Scandal \u2014\u00a0along with the Wondery+ subscription service, will move to Audible, the e-commerce giant’s audio platform.<\/p>\n

Its creator-focused podcast team that produces shows including Mind the Game, New Heights, and Armchair Expert will join a new Creator Services group within Amazon’s Talent Services division.<\/p>\n

This new team will continue to operate the creator-focused podcast studio under the Wondery brand, and Amazon said the changes will help better support creators to monetize their content across multiple channels.<\/p>\n

“Folding Wondery assets into Audible and focusing on ‘creator services’ could drive a pivot toward influencer-driven content that’s easier to monetize,” eMarketer’s Harmon said.<\/p>\n

In February, Amazon.com cut “a small number” of jobs at its Wondery podcast unit. Amazon purchased Wondery in 2020 for a reported USD300 million and last year signed a three-year USD100 million deal for rights to New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, a podcast featuring the brothers of National Football League fame.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazon.com is restructuring the Wondery podcast studio by shifting its award-winning narrative podcasts such as Business Wars to Audible and consolidating creator-led shows into a new unit, according to a memo seen by Reuters. About 110 employees will be laid off as part of the process and many will transition to other parts of Amazon, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}