YouTube Restructures Creator Management Teams; 100 Laid-Off.

As YouTube is making more outreach to the podcast community, the company is restructuring its creator management teams in a move that will also lead to some layoffs. YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe says the restructuring is geared toward streamlining its operations as it faces a ballooning number of creators on the platform.

“As we have seen the past few years, our creator base is broadening and diversifying, from our most experienced creators to a new generation of casual creators posting on YouTube for the first time,” Coe said. “Gen AI tools will further fuel new forms of creativity and bring even more creators to the platform. At the same time, our subscription businesses have momentum, powered by partnerships with music, sports and media companies. As the business evolves, we have an even greater need to ensure we’re running the business effectively and meeting the needs of all of our users,” she wrote in a memo to staff.

The changes – first reported by Tubefilter – will mean content creator management teams will now be more centralized. That means, for instance, that all music teams will now report to Head of Music Lyor Cohen, while the company’s sports, media, TV and film teams will be consolidated into one group. Each country will now have local leadership. At the same time, support teams will be split into two, with one team focused on creator support and another focused on users.

While 100 people are losing their jobs, it is a small number for YouTube which the New York Times says employed 7,173 people prior to the cuts. It reports most of the cutbacks are focused on staff that has provided support to YouTube creators.

Google announced in September that it will close the Google Podcast app as it puts more of an emphasis on growing its audience on YouTube. The move to consolidate podcasts under the YouTube banner has been expected in podcast circles as the company has put more of its resources into the video app, including adding new features to appeal to podcast listeners as well as consumers who would rather watch video produced by a show. This month YouTube said it will now allow creators to upload their shows to YouTube through an RSS feed. For podcasters, Google says the change means they will get more robust creation and analytics tools, in addition to making their podcasts available everywhere YouTube Music listeners are already consuming their favorite content.

The latest Podcast Download report from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights reports the number of weekly podcast consumers who say they only watch podcasts has grown from 8% to 14% between April 2022 and today. Overall, 28% of weekly podcast listeners now report they consume a podcast on YouTube, which is more than the combined reported use of Apple Podcasts and Spotify.