Pushkin Industries

Summary

Pushkin Industries is an American publisher of podcasts and audiobooks. It was co-founded in 2018 by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg.[1][2][3] As of 2021, it hosts over 25 podcasts.[1]

History edit

The company was co-founded in 2018 by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg, based on an idea by Weisberg.[1] The two worked together on Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History at Panoply Media and after the company exited the medium, the two wanted to do more projects together and decided to start Pushkin.[2]

In 2019, Pushkin began producing audiobooks starting with Gladwell's Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know. In 2019, Tim Harford launched his podcast Cautionary Tales on the network.[4][5]

Among other books, it published Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon, co-written by Gladwell and based on interviews with the musician Paul Simon.[1] Gladwell's The Bomber Mafia was written and conceived of as an audio production with sound effects and music, only after the script was complete was a book produced.[2]

In July 2022, Pushkin Industries agreed to buy the podcast studio Transmitter Media, marking the company's first acquisition.[6]

Pushkin Industries won "Podcast Network of the Year" at the 2021 Adweek Podcast Awards.[7]

In September 2023, Pushkin laid off seventeen employees, comprising more than 30% of its staff. As part of the reorganization, former Transmitter owner Gretta Cohn became CEO, while Weisberg took the title of executive chair. The change came amid significant layoffs in the podcast industry, including at Spotify and Sony.[8]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Shannon Maughan (November 5, 2021). "Pushkin Industries Pushes Audiobook Conventions". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg (April 23, 2021). "Malcolm Gladwell's New Word Order: Audiobook First". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
  3. ^ Peiser, Jacklyn (September 12, 2018). "Jacob Weisberg Leaves Slate to Join Malcolm Gladwell in Podcast Venture". The New York Times. Retrieved Dec 31, 2018.
  4. ^ "Cautionary Tales". Tim Harford – Podcasts. 15 November 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  5. ^ "iHeartMedia and Pushkin Industries Announce Major New Sales and Production Partnership". iHeartMedia. 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  6. ^ "Malcolm Gladwell's Pushkin Industries Makes Its First Acquisition". Bloomberg.com. 2022-07-18. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
  7. ^ Collins, Kennyatta (December 13, 2021). "Podcasts of the Year: Here Are Adweek's 2021 Winners". Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  8. ^ Carman, Ashley (2023-09-29). "Malcolm Gladwell's Pushkin Industries to Lay Off Over 30% of Staff". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2023-10-10.