Podcasting’s fallout continues

The pain is not over yet for the podcast industry, with layoffs and cancellations continuing to pile up. Amrita covered the WNYC layoffs yesterday, which, thanks to negotiations between management and the union, were not as steep as initially expected (6 percent laid off versus 12 percent previously announced). Last week, Pushkin laid off another 30 percent of staff in its third round of cuts this year, with shakeups even targeting its C-suite. And live audio took another hit on Wednesday, with Amazon shutting down Amp.  

I have been talking to people from the business side of podcasting about how the ad market has changed and why it is hitting podcasts so hard, especially when the economy seems to actually be doing… fine? As I wrote about at the end of 2022, the ad market is really susceptible to uncertainty, and while layoffs have been mainly avoided in much of the economy, companies often cut marketing budgets before cutting jobs. But that trickles down and manifests as job cuts in ad-dependent industries like media. And podcast companies in particular, after riding a wave of growth and excitement, are facing additional pressure from ad agencies to deliver on their targets.

I’ll have more on that soon, but also, feel free to email me your own questions about what is going on with the ad market. What do you want to know? Or, what do you think I and people in the industry should know? Hit me up at ariel.shapiro@theverge.com.