Former ESPN personality reportedly leaving Spotify

Jemele Hill, a journalist and former on-air talent at ESPN, plans to leave Spotify, according to a report from Bloomberg's Ashley Carman and Lucas Shaw. Hill is currently negotiating her exit from the streaming audio company, which distributes her network of shows, including "Jemele Hill Is Unbothered."

Hill signed with Spotify in 2019, giving the Swedish-based platform exclusive rights to distribute her namesake show. In 2021, the company announced a plan to expand her "Unbothered Network" as part of its commitment to supporting more Black voices in podcasting in light of the social justice movements the year before and controversies surrounding its best-known host, Joe Rogan. Spotify defended itself against boycott calls when clips surfaced about Rogan's use of the N-word as well as COVID misinformation, which prompted Hill to challenge the company on its support of minority-hosted shows. From the New York Times' reporting of the controversy in February 2022:

... Jemele Hill, the former ESPN commentator, said that Spotify’s defense of Mr. Rogan had created problems with her audience, and raised questions about the sincerity of the company’s dedication to minority talent.

“What I would like to see,” Ms. Hill said in an interview, “is for them to hand $100 million to somebody who is Black.”

However, Hill's network didn't take off, with just two shows launching in addition to "Unbothered." As Carman and Shaw note, her departure is the latest in an exodus of Black talent from Spotify, including famed director Ava DuVernay and Higher Ground, the production company started by Barack and Michelle Obama. The company has been shedding costs after years in acquisition mode. 

Once the fastest-growing segment in all of media, podcasting has hit a massive wall in the last year due to an overall decline in ad spending and belabored fears of a global recession. This New York Times article from February explains the declining enthusiasm around the medium.

Often outspoken on issues of race, Hill first came onto the national scene as a contributor to ESPN's Page 2 before expanding her role with the media company, including hosting "SportsCenter" with another former newspaper scribe, Michael Smith. (Hill was a columnist with the Orlando Sentinel before joining ESPN.) She left ESPN in late 2018 in the aftermath of the company's defense — or lack thereof, in the minds of many — of her tweets calling former President Donald Trump a white supremacist.