Dawn Ostroff is departing Spotify as the company’s head of content and advertising amid cutbacks affecting 6% of the company’s workforce.
Against a backdrop of austerity in the once-invincible tech sector, Spotify said it is shedding hundreds of jobs. In a memo to employees posted online, CEO Daniel Ek said he had been “too ambitious” in scaling up the company. “To bring our costs more in line, we’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our number of employees,” he explained. “While I believe this decision is right for Spotify, I understand that with our historic focus on growth, many of you will view this as a shift in our culture.
But as we evolve and grow as a business, so must our way of working while still staying true to our core values.” Ek praised Ostroff for her contributions and said Alex Norström would assume her duties.
Ostroff, a veteran of Condé Nast and the CW, joined the company in 2018. “Dawn has made a tremendous mark not only on Spotify, but on the audio industry overall,” Ek wrote. “Because of her efforts, Spotify grew our podcast content by 40x, drove significant innovation in the medium and became the leading music and podcast service in many markets.
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