Amazon’s audiobook and podcast subsidiary, Audible, is undergoing a workforce reduction, with 5% of its employees facing layoffs. Audible CEO Bob Carrigan cited a challenging market environment and the need for efficiency as core causes for the changes.
The cuts at Audible aren’t tied to that Amazon division alone; the retail, tech, and entertainment behemoth stated larger restructuring efforts in late 2022, which have resulted in approximately 27,000 job losses to date. Earlier in January, Amazon’s Twitch, Prime Video, MGM Studios teams also announced significant layoffs.
According to an unnamed source in Business Insider, there are expectations that management will adopt Amazon’s “unregretted attrition rate” policy, which could involve performance-based cuts.
This comes as Audible’s share in the audiobook space faces considerable threat from Spotify, which now offers an audiobook allotment to the streaming service’s premium users.
In his message to employees, Carrigan affirmed Audible’s current robust state but stressed the importance of becoming “leaner and more efficient.” He assured that the company would support those affected as they transition to new opportunities and emphasized that these measures were to fortify the business for long-term sustainability.
