– All about audio. On this 12 months’s Fortune 500, there have been 9 new firms led by ladies. As mentioned in yesterday’s publication, most of these firms joined the ranks of women-led Fortune 500 companies after selling ladies from inside to the highest job—with one exception (type of).
SiriusXM is a part of the Fortune 500 for the primary time after spinning off from Liberty Media in September 2024. That provides SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz to the cohort of Fortune 500 chiefs; like her fellow feminine CEOs, she was promoted to the job in 2021 after twenty years on the firm (beginning when it was nonetheless simply Sirius).
I dove into the state of the $8.7 billion firm at present in a function revealed within the newest difficulty of Fortune. The corporate is quietly rather more fascinating than it appears at first look—it entails the whole lot from radio and expertise administration, to satellite tv for pc launches into area, negotiations with auto producers, and even a small enterprise line providing boaters fishing and climate data. The corporate was revolutionary when it debuted within the very early 2000s, promising uninterrupted radio service with out FCC regulation. However it was shortly outpaced by the streaming period; satellite tv for pc know-how presents no knowledge on listeners, making it near-impossible to maintain up with algorithmic personalised suggestions.
Underneath Witz, SiriusXM has grown its podcasting enterprise, with promoting now making up 20% of its income to subscriptions’ 80%; it handles promoting for two-thirds of all podcasts within the U.S. Stars like Alex Cooper and Crime Junkie’s Ashley Flowers draw headlines.
However it’s up in opposition to some robust long-term traits, from quarterly subscriber losses, to an growing old consumer base, to even the rise of self-driving vehicles—the place passengers may sooner or later watch video, not simply hearken to audio.
Witz has refocused SiriusXM on the automobile, the place it’s strongest—and has eyes on the lounge as a spot the place SiriusXM may develop. Learn extra concerning the new Fortune 500 firm, its CEO, and the challenges forward in my function story right here.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
