• by Ray Schultz , November 7, 2024

Podcast publisher iHeart Media has cut around 5% of its 10,000-person workforce.

The layoffs took place on Monday and Tuesday, the New York Post reports. 

Among those impacted was Stan Norfleet, the host of Houston’s SportsTalk 790. 

The news came just before the company announced a 5.8% increase in Q3 revenue to $1,008 million on Thursday. Excluding Q3 political revenue, the increase was 2%. 

 “We continue to see evidence that this is a recovery year for advertising revenues, and the strong momentum in our podcast business, our digital ex-podcast business, and the sequential improvement of our Multiplatform Group’s year over year revenue performance reflect the power of our unparalleled reach, consumer relationships and range of assets,” says Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc.

Pittman added, “We have flattened our organization, eliminated redundancies and broken down silos, which will have a major impact on costs, expected to generate $200 million of annual savings in 2025 compared to 2024, and benefiting full year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA by $150 million on a year over year basis.”

It was not clear at deadline if any of those savings were attributable to the layoffs. 

The overall revenue results were in line with a previously issued guidance, Pittman states.  

In other results, digital audio group revenue grew by 13% to $301 million, podcast revenue by 11% to $114 million and digital revenue excluding podcast by 14% to $187 million. 

iHeartMedia spokesperson Wendy Goldberg confirmed the layoffs to the New York Post. 

“Although in a company of 10,000 people very few jobs have been affected, there have been some and we never take this step lightly no matter how few jobs it entails; every team member is important to us and has our respect and appreciation,” Goldberg said, according to the Post.