Amazon is shuffling operations at Audible by announcing Rachel Ghiazza as the new chief content officer. She will be working on Amazon’s new main objective for Audibles and managing the creation of new Audible originals. Ghiazza’s new role also includes overseeing all stages of audiobooks and podcast content from pitch to delivery as well as managing negotiations between partners, publishers, and creators.
“Rachel has proven to be a formidable leader whose passion and pursuit of excellence has been integral to our success. During her tenure, she has consistently championed great storytelling – the lifeblood of Audible – and constructed a best-in-class team that continues to drive our business forward,” said Bob Carrigan, CEO of Amazon Audible as reported by Podnews. “Her work in developing our impressive slate of originals, and ushering in world-class talent while successfully expanding our unmatched library has been instrumental to our growth. We couldn’t be more pleased to acknowledge her with this well-deserved promotion.
Audiobooks are outperforming other divisions of publishing, growing more popular than eBooks and print. Amazon’s Audible has control over 63 percent of this industry. And since Audibles only makes up a sliver of Amazon’s operational costs, the company has a lot of wiggle room to experiment with this division.
Rachel Ghiazza jumped from Spotify to Amazon Audibles where she has been the head of U.S. content since 2020. Since joining Audibles, Ghiazza contributed to the development and launch of Audible Plus, Audible Theater, and Words + Music.
As reported by The Verge, Audibles has signed agreements with several high-profile podcasts and audiobooks in addition to bringing on a large number of original comedy podcasts with Daisy May Cooper, Lolly Adefope, and Mo Gilligan.
“It is a privilege to work alongside an incredible team whose commitment to creativity and innovation in the audio space inspires me every day. Audible is iconic – a company that has set audio’s gold standard and it is our fearless audience-first approach to storytelling that makes us the very best in the business. I look forward to what’s ahead – boldly shepherding Audible’s next chapter in global content creation,” said Ghiazza.