– All about audio. On this year’s Fortune 500, there were nine new companies led by women. As discussed in yesterday’s newsletter, most of those companies joined the ranks of women-led Fortune 500 businesses after promoting women from within to the top job—with one exception (sort of).
SiriusXM is part of the Fortune 500 for the first time after spinning off from Liberty Media in September 2024. That adds SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz to the cohort of Fortune 500 chiefs; like her fellow female CEOs, she was promoted to the job in 2021 after two decades at the company (starting when it was still just Sirius).
I dove into the state of the $8.7 billion company today in a feature published in the latest issue of Fortune. The company is quietly much more interesting than it seems at first glance—it involves everything from radio and talent management, to satellite launches into space, negotiations with auto manufacturers, and even a small business line offering boaters fishing and weather info. The company was revolutionary when it debuted in the very early 2000s, promising uninterrupted radio service without FCC regulation. But it was quickly outpaced by the streaming era; satellite technology offers no data on listeners, making it near-impossible to keep up with algorithmic personalized recommendations.
Under Witz, SiriusXM has grown its podcasting business, with advertising now making up 20% of its revenue to subscriptions’ 80%; it handles advertising for two-thirds of all podcasts in the U.S. Stars like Alex Cooper and Crime Junkie’s Ashley Flowers draw headlines.
But it’s up against some tough long-term trends, from quarterly subscriber losses, to an aging user base, to even the rise of self-driving cars—where passengers could one day watch video, not just listen to audio.
Witz has refocused SiriusXM on the car, where it’s strongest—and has eyes on the living room as a place where SiriusXM could grow. Read more about the new Fortune 500 company, its CEO, and the challenges ahead in my feature story here.
Emma [email protected]
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
