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Wondery CEO highlights the company's global ambitions and 'culture of taking risk' amid podcast consumption boom

Natalie Jarvey   

Wondery CEO highlights the company's global ambitions and 'culture of taking risk' amid podcast consumption boom

  • Gains in podcast listenership in 2020 were a boon to audio studio Wondery.
  • The company is looking to expand internationally since selling to Amazon for around $300 million.
  • Wondery CEO Jen Sargent, who's featured on the 100 People Transforming Business list, said the company is looking to "expand to a global footprint."

When the COVID-19 shutdown first took effect in March 2020 and many Americans became homebound, podcast listenership took a noticeable dip.

"We didn't know what was going to happen to podcast listening," Jen Sargent told Insider of the early days of the pandemic, when the Wondery CEO was still serving as the podcast producer's chief operating officer.

But Wondery didn't waver in its focus on providing narrative-driven audio stories to customers and soon the industry-wide decline in podcast consumption righted itself. In fact, the number of Americans ages 12 and up who listen to podcasts monthly grew to 116 million people, according to the Infinite Dial 2021 report.

"When people stopped commuting back in March, they needed a few months to figure out their routine," said Sargent, acknowledging that a lot of podcast consumption occurs in the car. "But what happened is they found new use cases for podcasts. They started listening when they're walking the dog, when they're exercising, when they're around the house, when they're playing with the kids.

"Now that we're — I hope I can say — starting to get back to some normalcy, we're finding that consumers have kept that behavior and added back commuting and added back travel," Sargent added.

The industry's resurgence drove significant opportunity for Wondery, which sold to Amazon for about $300 million at the end of 2020. As part of the deal, Sargent — who previously ran pop-culture site HitFix — was upped to CEO, replacing founder Hernan Lopez in the role.

"Consumer adoption has accelerated way more than I even expected when I joined Wondery," said Sargent, who was interviewed for her inclusion on Insider's 2021 list of 100 people transforming business.

Approximately 162 million Americans — about 57% of the population — have listened to a podcast. But Sargent isn't just thinking about growing Wondery's domestic audience. She's also looking at ways to bring the company's stories to an international stage, where podcast consumption is on the rise thanks to efforts by major platforms like Spotify.

Prior to its acquisition by Amazon, Wondery dabbled in international content, offering 2019 true crime series "Dr. Death" in seven local languages, for example. But with the tech giant's resources and global infrastructure, Wondery — which employs more than 100 people — plans to hire executives outside the US as it looks to increase its reach in new regions.

"As I look into the future, Wondery will not be the only podcast publisher looking to expand to a global footprint," Sargent said. "These behaviors that we're seeing in the US market and the revenue streams, I mean, it's all still early but I think they absolutely apply to global markets. That will be an exciting opportunity for all of us."

There is far more competition in podcasting than when Wondery started in 2016, particularly as tech giants like Spotify and Apple go head-to-head with legacy media to nab top talent and buzzy shows. Aligning with Amazon — which via Amazon Music and Audible is investing more deeply in audio storytelling — has given Wondery the resources to stay ahead of the changing landscape.

"Wondery has always had a culture of taking risks," Sargent said. "If we can keep that culture of risk taking, pushing the envelope, then we'll be able to adapt as we see more changes in the podcast space."

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