Amazon lays off over 100 employees in Wondery unit as part of audio business restructuring
The brand for Wondery is displayed on a smartphone in an organized {photograph} taken within the Brooklyn borough of Pristine York, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
Amazon is shedding more or less 110 workers in its Wondery podcast category and the pinnacle of the crowd is departure as a part of a broader reshuffling of the corporate’s audio unit.
In a Monday word to staffers, Steve Growth, Amazon’s vice chairman of audio, Twitch and video games, stated the corporate is consolidating some Wondery devices beneath its Audible audiobook and podcasting category. Wondery CEO Jen Sargent could also be stepping ill from her function, Growth stated.
“These changes will not only better align our teams as they work to take advantage of the strategic opportunities ahead but, even more crucially, will ensure we have the right structure in place to deliver the very best experience to creators, customers and advertisers,” Growth wrote within the memo, which was once seen through GWN. “Unfortunately, these changes also include some role reductions, and we have notified those employees this morning.”
Bloomberg was once first to file at the activity cuts.
The proceed comes just about 5 years upcoming Amazon got Wondery as a part of a push to increase its catalog of unedited audio content material. The podcasting corporate made a reputation for itself with clash displays like “Dirty John” and “Dr. Death.”
Extra lately, Wondery signed a number of profitable licensing offers with Jason and Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, in conjunction with Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert.”
Amazon is streamlining “how Wondery further integrates” into the corporate through keeping apart the groups that keep tabs on its narrative podcasts from the ones growing “creator-led shows,” Growth wrote.
The narrative podcasting unit will consolidate beneath Audible, and creator-led content material will proceed to a unutilized unit inside of Growth’s group in Amazon referred to as “creator services,” he wrote.
Amazon’s audio interests face a heightened problem from the rising acclaim for video podcasts on Alphabet‘s YouTube, which now hosts increasingly more displays.
Video displays require other discovery, enlargement and monetization methods than “audio-first, narrative series,” Growth wrote within the memo to Amazon staffers.
“The podcast landscape has evolved significantly over the past few years,” Growth stated.
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