Amazon is denying that it’s shutting down Wondery, the podcast studio it acquired in late 2020, after Bloomberg reported on Monday that the company was closing the studio and cutting 110 jobs.
Amazon told TechCrunch that Wondery will continue to develop creator-led podcasts under the Wondery brand within a new team. What’s changing is that the company is separating the teams that oversee Wondery’s narrative podcast efforts from those developing its creator-led shows.
Wondery is combining its narrative podcast studio, which includes podcasts like Dr. Death and American Scandal, with Audible.
“The podcast landscape has evolved significantly in the past few years, particularly with the rise of video-forward, creator-led content,” Amazon said in an emailed statement.
“These changes reflect that evolution and will streamline how Wondery integrates further into Amazon. By making these changes, we can better support creators in monetizing their content across multiple channels, help them expand their brand IP, and simplify the process for advertisers while making content more accessible to audiences wherever they prefer to consume it. This evolution builds on Wondery’s early success with video-forward shows and positions us to better serve creators, customers, and advertisers.”
Despite securing big names in the business, the company is now shifting its strategy in an effort to better compete with rivals like Spotify and YouTube as the podcasting industry embraces video formats.
Update: The article was updated to reflect that Amazon denied reports of Wondery shutting down.
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