One of many largest and most profitable podcast producers, Wondery, is to be restructured by Amazon, shedding a reported 110 individuals together with the corporate’s CEO, Jen Sargent. Wondery was purchased by Amazon on the finish of 2020 for $300mn, then doubled its workers. It at the moment has round 360 revealed reveals.
Wondery’s narrative podcast studio might be mixed with Audible. Marshal Lewy, Wondery’s Chief Content material Officer, may even be a part of Audible. The corporate’s creator-led reveals (New Heights, Armchair Knowledgeable,and so forth) might be merged with the prevailing Expertise Companies staff, rebranding to Creator Companies. Advertisements and sponsorship will create a wholly new staff that incudes the prevailing ad-sales staff at Amazon Music.
The story was damaged by Bloomberg in a paywalled article. Enterprise Insider carries the memo from Steve Increase explaining the modifications, and noting that podcast income has grown by 4x because the firm was purchased by Amazon.
Why the change? Video killed the owl, it appears. The memo reads “The podcast panorama has advanced considerably over the previous few years. As video podcasting has grown in recognition, we have now discovered that creator-led, video-integrated reveals have totally different viewers wants and require distinct discovery, development and monetization methods in comparison with audio-first, narrative sequence. The rise of video has additionally blurred the traces on what it means to be a podcast creator.”
Amazon’s determination ought to be learn alongside the efficiency of its different podcast acquisitions. Amazon purchased podcast internet hosting firm ART19 in June 2021, which has by no means achieved greater than a 1% share of complete episodes revealed, and at the moment hosts 3,900 reveals (different enterprise hosts like Megaphone, Simplecast, or Triton/Ommy every host round 20,000).
Amazon splashed $80mn on the SmartLess podcast: however. That deal solely lasted three years. Final yr it spent $100mn for New Heights, promising worldwide audio variations (which hasn’t occurred) and dwell occasions – there hasn’t been a dwell even for the present since Amazon’s possession. Amazon music began slowly including podcasts in 2020; it has a 13% market share for music within the US, however achieves only a 1.6% share of US podcast downloads.
If you happen to’re affected by latest layoffs at Wondery, Pineapple Avenue Studios, or public radio, Podcast Motion is providing a restricted variety of complementary passes for its occasion in Dallas later this month. E-mail assist@podcastmovement.com to get related with the staff.
