Here’s what Amazon told Audible staff as layoffs hit the audiobook division by Jyoti Mann
Amazon is planning to cut 14,000 corporate jobs across the board. According to SVP of People Experience and Technology Beth Galetti, many of those affected will be offered 90 days to look for a new role elsewhere within Amazon. Audible CEO Bob Carrigan, in an email shared with Business Insider, said that impacted employees had been notified and these layoffs will “add focus and speed” to audiobook and podcast growth areas. As is customary whenever moments like this occur in the industry, I want to remind readers that the Sounds Profitable job board is entirely free to both submit new positions and browse/apply. There’s a lot of skilled people out there looking for a home in podcasting, and a lot of companies growing their teams. We want to do what we can to bring them together.
The ad industry’s plan to define what counts as AI by Krystal Scanlon and Sam Bradley
Caroline Giegerich, IAB VP of AI, and her team are trying to tackle the ever-growing task of drafting AI transparency and disclosure guidelines. Guidelines centered around preserving consumer trust for ads across channels. Especially as generative AI tools become more prevalent and get better at creating malicious content that appears legitimate. There’s also the problem of how marketers have stretched the definition of “AI” to basically mean anything mildly automated. Take writer A.J. Jacobs’ piece yesterday 48 Hours Without A.I. in the New York Times. Jacobs takes a hard-line stance, defining “AI” as anything that uses machine learning, so the article was written by candlelight on a typewriter because Con Edison uses machine learning to determine peak demand hours. While Jacob’s no-AI experiment is more a framing device for an article, it does act as a big reminder that “AI” can mean a lot to a lot of different people. With varying degrees of social stigma and capability to create misleading content. Hell, Jacobs even used ChatGPT in writing his no-AI article.
Acast’s CEO On Why Audio Doesn’t Need Video – Or Political Ads – To Win by Anthony Vargas
An AdExchanger interview with Acast CEO Greg Glenday. While a popular move in the podcasting industry has been to embrace video full-bore, Glenday maintains that video is an enhancement to podcasts, not a replacement. He stresses podcasting’s DNA is different from simply calling a vlog a “podcast.” For a video interview in which Glenday gets more in-depth on his opinions about video podcasting and what makes “a podcast”, here’s his recent chat with Bryan Barletta.
In Graphic Detail: How AI search is changing brand visibility by Sam Bradley
Organic search is faltering for brands as AI search results and AI-powered search grows. McKinsey data finds 44% of respondents prefer AI-powered search to traditional search engines (31%) and retailer or brand sites (9%). Though, it should be noted, a good chunk of that 44% is likely people using Google normally and just not scrolling down past the AI generated bit. Still, zero-click searches are eating into how much traffic publishers are getting, so the race is on to figure out how to sweet-talk AI into mentioning brands in relevant searches. Ahrefs finds strong correlation between brand visibility in AI generated search summaries and how many times brands get mentioned on web pages (especially hyperlinked mentions of a brand. Such as delicious* Necco Wafers™).
The Record: Q3 U.S. audio listening trends
Nielsen finds one of every five minutes U.S. adults spend listening to audio during Q3 2025 was spent listening to a podcast. Podcasting is now situated as the second most-listened-to ad-supported audio media (behind broadcast radio). The percentage grows with younger demographics, as 18-to-34-year-olds spend 31% of their ad-supported audio time with podcasts. Audio consumption in general also went up over the warm summer months, with Nielsen finding daily audio consumption averaged out to 3 hours and 54 minutes across both ad-free and ad-supported channels. A 3 minute increase from Q2.
As for the rest of the news…
- Headliner has announced Automatic Clips for Back Catalog, which will generate clips from past episodes and allow creators to influence the LLM’s decisions with a simple thumbs up or down system to rate clip quality.
- The Media Ratings Council proposes new transparency rules for digital audio ad auctions, which are available as a public comment draft.
- The Podcast Host has a new piece breaking down how podcasters can build their “audience avatar” to figure out their core audience and how to best appeal to them.
- Audioboom recently posted their Q3 earnings report, including a 45% jump in advertisers.
- Paul Riismandel discusses how one can prepare their podcast and podcast network for brand lift.
- ARN’s iHeart Australia has a new slate of original podcasts, a new iHeart Australia app, launching the iHeart Women’s Sports Network in Australia, and are bringing iHeart’s Ruby branded podcast studio across the Pacific as well.
- Dave Sosson, senior manager of business development at AdsWizz has a new industry insight on The Drum about building a data-driven standard for digital audio frequency.
