Spotify Lays Off 15 Podcast Workers, Shifts Focus to Video Content

Miles Surrey, a pop culture writer at The Ringer, announced on social media that he was among the cuts. "It was a rewarding eight and a half years and I'm proud to have literally written the most articles in the site's history," he wrote on X. Hours later, Andrew Gruttadaro, the site's special projects lead, confirmed he too was let go after nine years. "It's impossible to sum up nine years in a tweet but: I worked on so many things — profiles, theme weeks, special projects — that I am incredibly proud of," Gruttadaro posted.

The layoffs affected 15 employees, about 3% of the podcast organization's headcount, with most cuts coming at The Ringer and Spotify Studios. The departures of Surrey and Gruttadaro were among the first confirmed publicly, but with the restructuring, The Ringer is also ending the show "New York, New York With John Jastremski," a podcast covering sports in New York. A source said Jastremski's contract at The Ringer is expiring and will not be renewed. He will host his own podcast as he figures out next steps. Jastremski could not be immediately reached for comment.

"Spotify does not comment on staffing shifts," a spokesperson said. Internally, however, the picture drawn by sources is different from a standard cost-cutting exercise. The changes are being described internally as helping Spotify's podcast group focus on improving execution, speed and alignment across teams, and that the layoffs are not about cost-cutting. Spotify is still investing in growth areas in its podcast business, particularly in multiformat content and video, a source says.

Since Bill Simmons extended his contract at Spotify early last year, his company The Ringer has been heavily focused on video podcasts as part of Spotify's overall embrace of the medium. As The Ringer added talent like former ESPN host Max Kellerman, NBA analyst Zach Lowe, and comedian Amy Poehler, striking a big licensing deal with Netflix in 2025, Spotify simultaneously laid off a handful of Ringer staffers including writer Claire McNear and producer Jonathan Kermah.

Last week, Chicago podcaster Jason Goff announced that The Full Go Podcast had reached the end of its road, making Monday's cuts the second consecutive week of Ringer-adjacent content losses.

The March 24 round is the latest in a series of reductions that have reshaped Spotify's podcast ambitions over the past three years. In June 2025, Spotify laid off 15 employees at The Ringer and Spotify Studios, representing about 5% of its headcount at the time. In 2023, Spotify made far bigger cuts, laying off about 200 staffers as part of a "strategic realignment" of the podcast business. In addition, in late 2023 and into early 2024, the company overall let go about 1,500 workers, representing 17% of its worldwide employee base.

Since entering the podcasting space in 2019, Spotify invested heavily in acquisitions, including Gimlet Media, Parcast, and The Ringer, alongside high-profile exclusive deals with creators. The Ringer alone cost Spotify roughly $250 million in cash when it was acquired in 2020. The company's strategy has since pivoted repeatedly: from platform exclusivity to broad distribution, and now toward video as the primary growth driver.

Spotify has already started distributing select shows, including content tied to The Ringer, on Netflix, signaling a willingness to meet audiences wherever they are. That outward-facing distribution logic now appears to be driving internal decisions about which roles and formats to prioritize, with audio-first positions paying the steepest price in each successive round of cuts.