Latest news with #WonderyPlus
Engadget
7 days ago
- Business
- Engadget
Amazon splits up the Wondery podcast network and lays off about 110 employees
Four years after Amazon's acquisition of podcast network Wondery , the tech giant is dismantling its $300 million purchase and reorganizing various audio properties into separate teams at the company. As first reported by Bloomberg , this reorg will see the studio lose about 110 employees, and CEO Jen Sargent is departing the company. Amazon told Bloomberg it will continue to produce podcasts, though their place within the company will be restructured. The more narrative-focused podcasts under the Wondery brand, such as American Scandal and Business Wars , will merge with Amazon's Audible team. Some of these podcasts will retain Wondery branding, and the Wondery Plus app will remain active. Subscribers to Wondery Plus get early access to some podcast episodes through the app, though it's unclear at this point what functionalities will remain in the app, and which will be absorbed by Audible. Meanwhile, the celebrity-hosted shows such as New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce and Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard will be rolled into a new team that Amazon is calling Creator Services. According to Bloomberg , a main focus of this new team will be selling large sponsorships. These titles are part of a growing trend toward video podcasts that have helped make YouTube the go-to platform for podcast consumption. Steve Boom, VP for Audio, Twitch and Games at Amazon, addressed the changes in a memo (published by Deadline ) sent to Amazon employees. "The podcast landscape has evolved significantly over the past few years. As video podcasting has grown in popularity, we have learned that creator-led, video-integrated shows have different audience needs and require distinct discovery, growth and monetization strategies compared with audio-first, narrative series," he wrote. Employees who were let go as part of these changes were notified Monday, though Amazon spokesperson Alice Zhou told The Verge that "many of the impacted employees" would be moved to "other parts of Amazon."
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Hypothermia hits prisoner in unheated cell in 3rd episode of ‘Death County, PA'
It isn't just violent confrontations that may have led to people dying at the Dauphin County Prison. It's also the temperature. And decisions made by prison staff about medical treatment. That's according to the third episode of the podcast 'Death County, Pa.', which was released on Monday and that tells the story of a years-long PennLive investigation into why so many prisoners at the Pennsylvania jail have passed away in recent years. The third episode of the podcast, which was produced by Wondery in collaboration with PennLive, was released today on Apple, Spotify and wherever podcasts are available. New episodes are being released each Monday, and all six episodes are available to subscribers of Wondery Plus. Narrated by PennLive Investigative Reporter Joshua Vaughn, the podcast rose to the top spot on Apple's list of top podcast series two days after it was released. The third episode delves into how Jamal Crummel, a man who suffered from mental health challenges, endured bitterly cold conditions in a prison cell that didn't have heat. His core body temperature dropped below 90 degrees and his skin was so damaged from the cold that a guard said it peeled off like tissue paper. He was hospitalized with severe hypothermia for more than a month. Prison authorities decided not to transfer Crummel to a specialized medical unit in Pittsburgh — which would cost additional time and resources — and treated him at a local hospital instead. After his condition improved, Crummel was returned to the same cellblock where he suffered the condition in the first place. The third episode explores who Crummel was and what happened to him after he was brought back to the jail. The first two episodes of 'Death County, Pa.' focused on the deaths of two other prisoners who died under suspicious circumstances. Wondery has developed a number of award-winning, long-form podcast series, some of which have gone on to be produced into TV series. PennLive is a news site run by Advance Local, one of the largest media groups in the United States, operating in 20 cities. PennLive podcast on Dauphin County jail deaths tops Apple charts 'If they're lying about one, how do we know they're not lying about all of them?' Early episodes of national podcast focus on 2 deaths at Dauphin County Prison Read the original article on MassLive.
