Listen to this article

Newark-based Audible is cutting approximately 5% of its staff.

The layoffs, first reported by Business Insider Jan. 11 based on an internal email from the online audiobook and podcast service, follow other recent reductions from Audible’s parent company, Amazon. A spokesperson for Audible shared the email with NJBIZ.

On Jan. 10, Twitch, the video streaming service Amazon acquired for nearly $1 billion in 2014, announced on its website that it would cut more than 500 roles. That same day, an internal email indicated several hundred jobs across Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios would be eliminated, as reported by Reuters. According to that publication, Amazon laid off more than 27,000 people in 2022.

Audible moved its headquarters to Newark in 2007. It was purchased by Amazon for $300 million in 2008.

“Our business is in good shape, and that is because of the hard work of each and every one of you. However, to position us for continued success in the coming year and into the future, given the increasingly challenging landscape we face, we have to take this difficult decision now,” Audible CEO Bob Carrigan wrote in the email. “As a company driven by our People Principles and in particular Activate Caring, we did not take this route without considerable thought. But getting leaner, and more efficient, is the way we will need to operate now — and in the foreseeable future — in order to continue delivering best-in-class audio storytelling to our customers around the world.”

It was not immediately clear if or to what extent the cuts would affect Audible’s Garden State employees. According to the company’s Glassdoor profile, it employs between 1,000-5,000 people.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

Audible relocated to the Brick City in pursuit of one of its core corporate principles, “to improve the lives of those in the cities and countries in which we operate … We believe in giving people a chance, and we work to make this so, particularly in the urban core,” it said announcing the Global Center for Urban Development in 2020.

Programs launched in Newark under that initiative include Newark Working Kitchens, which has delivered 1.5 million meals and supported over 37 restaurants in the city since its launch amid the pandemic in April 2020; and, most recently, Newark Squared. Announced last summer, the series of incentives seek to help attract and retain businesses to grow in the city. It includes leasing opportunities, a grant to help participants’ employees relocate to Newark and more.

Audible also offers its own employees a relocation stipend, which it reported in a 2019 economic impact report has tripled the number of workers living in the city. That same study said the company’s $530 million in direct investment in the city has resulted in $775 million in impact.