Amazon Changes How It Runs Podcasts, Pushes Celebrity Deals for Shopping

Amazon cut more than 100 jobs from its podcast studio Wondery in August 2025. At the same time, the company started a new department called Creator Services to work with celebrities and athletes, according to The New York Times. The key shift: Amazon now wants to use celebrity podcasts and videos not just to entertain people, but to sell them products.

Amazon is keeping the Wondery name, but moving regular audio-only podcasts over to Audible, its audiobook service. This means the company is reorganizing where different types of content live, rather than shutting down podcasts altogether.

A New Team Focused on Celebrity Content

Amazon's Creator Services department, run by general manager Matt Sandler, partners with celebrities like Dax Sheperd, Keke Palmer, and NFL players Jason and Travis Kelce. The goal is clear: get well-known people to create content that keeps audiences engaged and brings them back to Amazon to buy things.

Sandler explained that Amazon is trying to "infuse both content and commerce together." In plain terms, that means if a celebrity has a podcast or show, Amazon wants to use that to sell related products at the same time.

The Kelce brothers' podcast called New Heights is Amazon's main example. Around this podcast, Amazon built what it calls a "Kelce Clubhouse"—a section on its platform where fans can buy New Heights merchandise, watch a documentary about the Kelces, and see product suggestions for watching football games. The podcast itself is free, but everything around it is designed to get people shopping.

Why Amazon Is Making This Change

Audio-only podcasts don't make Amazon much money on their own. A podcast might get millions of listeners, but ads and subscriptions alone don't bring in revenue the way selling products does. When Amazon pairs a celebrity with video content and merchandise, it can make money in several ways at once: from people watching videos, from selling branded goods, and from all the product recommendations the platform makes.

This follows a pattern Amazon has used before with Prime Video, its movie and show service. Amazon doesn't just use original shows to entertain Prime members—it also uses them to advertise products and get people to buy things.

The Wondery job cuts are significant for the people affected, but they reflect a business decision about where Amazon thinks it can make more money. The company is keeping the Wondery brand and its existing shows, but directing new resources toward celebrity partnerships that connect to shopping.

What Amazon Is Building

Amazon has a major advantage compared to other companies: it owns both the technology to stream videos and the world's largest online shopping platform. This means Amazon can offer celebrities and athletes something no one else can—a complete package. One celebrity partnership can include video streaming, podcast hosting, merchandise sales, and product recommendations, all connected through the same company.

This is different from platforms like YouTube or TikTok, which are mainly places to watch videos or share clips. Those platforms rely on advertising money. Amazon can do advertising, but it can also sell products directly to audiences, which tends to make more money.

The broader picture here is worth considering: for large tech companies like Amazon, content—whether podcasts or TV shows—is becoming a tool. It brings people in and keeps them interested, but the real money comes from what those people do next: buy a product, renew a subscription, or use other services. Companies are increasingly betting that the biggest payoff comes from audiences they can sell things to, not just audiences they can show ads to.

Amazon appears to have studied which content and celebrities generated the most shopping activity, then restructured around those winners. This wasn't a rushed reaction to a crisis, but a deliberate decision to put more money and attention where the financial returns are highest.