Spotify's chief content and advertising officer, Dawn Ostroff, is leaving as part of mass job cuts resulting from a 6% reduction in the company's headcount. Spotify is cutting about 600 jobs as part of a restructuring process. Ostroff was the driving force behind Spotify's podcasting investment, spending about $1bn on exclusivity deals and acquisitions, including podcasting company Gimlet and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Archetypes series in a reported $25m deal. Investors have begun to question the cost of the podcasting strategy, leading to cutbacks including several production teams in October. Spotify's stock rose 8% in trading in New York.
The US think tank, Heritage Foundation, has launched legal action against the State Department to get hold of Prince Harry's immigration records. The Foundation claims that the public has a "right to know" whether Harry, who admitted in his memoir to taking drugs, was truthful on his visa application. The US visa application form asks whether an applicant has ever violated any law related to controlled substances. Even though the US government has refused to release it following pressure from the think tank, a US court will rule on whether to compel officials to release his immigration records to the public.
