TL;DR
Spotify laid off 15 employees across The Ringer and Spotify Studios -- about 3% of the podcast division -- while canceling the Ringer sports show New York, New York.
MSM Perspective
Variety and The Wrap reported the layoffs as a restructuring aimed at flattening management layers, with Spotify denying the cuts signal a broader strategic retreat.
X Perspective
X is treating the cuts as the latest evidence that Spotify's $900 million podcast bet has failed, with laid-off staffers posting tributes and industry peers sharing job leads.
Spotify laid off 15 employees in its podcast division in late March, affecting staff at both The Ringer and Spotify Studios. The cuts represent approximately 3% of the podcast group's headcount. [1] Among the casualties: New York, New York, the Ringer sports show hosted by John Jastremski, which was canceled as part of the restructuring. [2]
Spotify characterized the layoffs as an effort to reduce management layers and speed up decision-making, not a signal of strategic retreat from podcasting. [1] The distinction is cosmetic. In June 2025, Spotify cut 15 employees from the same division -- roughly 5% of the headcount at the time. [1] Two rounds of cuts in nine months, targeting the same teams, constitute a pattern regardless of what the company calls it.
The Ringer, which Spotify acquired from Bill Simmons in 2020 for a reported $250 million, has been a slow-motion case study in what happens when a tech company buys a media brand and discovers the margins do not scale. The layoffs continue a trajectory that has seen the original editorial identity diluted with each round of cuts.
Spotify's podcast ambitions were once valued at $900 million in acquisitions. Fifteen jobs at a time, those ambitions are being repriced.
-- CAMILLE BEAUMONT, Los Angeles
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