Audible has announced that executive vice president of content Rachel Ghiazza has been promoted as the new chief content officer for the podcast and audiobook service.
With this new role, Ghiazza’s responsibilities will be expanded to include overseeing and growing Audible’s portfolio of podcasts and audiobooks from all aspects including development, production, partner relations, and so on. Ghiazza will also work towards making Audible’s line of original content more globalised.
“It is a privilege to work alongside an incredible team whose commitment to creativity and innovation in the audio space inspires me every day,” said Ghiazza. “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.”
In 2020, Audible appointed former president of Pop TV Brad Schwartz as the chief content officer but he shortly left the position a few weeks after the announcement, following the resurfacing of a two-year old sexual harassment and gender bias lawsuit involving Schwartz.
Ghiazza will start the new role “effective immediately” and will continue to report to Audible chief executive officer Bob Carrigan. This appointment comes after serving three years at Audible as executive vice president and head of US content, and one year as senior vice president of content acquisition and development prior to that.
In her previous roles, Ghiazza supported the launch and development of Audible Plus, projects like its performance arts venue Audible Theater, introducing spatial-sound listening in partnership with Dolby Atmos, and multi-project deals with production companies like Higher Ground, Skybound Entertainment, and more.
“Rachel has proven to be a formidable leader whose passion and pursuit of excellence has been integral to our success,” said Carrigan. “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.”
“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.”
Prior to working at Audible, Ghiazza was the global head of content experiences at Spotify for four years, where she helped the platform launch mixed multi-media formats including its vertical video program as well as managed global teams and workflow for market analytics, product development, UX experience, and more.
Audible, which is a subsidiary under Amazon, has continued to work towards developing and expanding its podcast portfolio by working with external creators and production companies to launch new and original content. This recently included two new documentary podcasts in partnership with the production company behind the Tinder Swindler documentary, RAW TV.
