Andy Sheppard and Tori Allen, both former showrunners at Canadian podcast production company Pacific Content, have joined forces to launch Sequel, which in name and intent provides a similar service as Pacific Content.
The History Of It
Shepherd and Allen’s former jobs ended in May, when Pacific Content was shuttered by parent company Rogers Media (RAIN coverage HERE). That collapse was preceded by layoffs in early 2023 (HERE). The foundation for all this was the Rogers acquisition, which happened in May of 2019 (HERE).
Rogers-owned Pacific continued releasing news, hiring a director of business development in October 2019, collaborating with podcast analytics specialist Chartable in May, 2021, and expanding its services with research company Signal Hill Insights.
All this expansion seemed contradicted when Pacific Content’s two founders, Steve Pratt and Chris Boyce, left the company in early 2022. Then, Director of Audience Development Dan Misener and Head of Strategy Jonas Woost announced their departure a few months later.
Those key departures presaged a more general slimming of the company, as a layoff sweep was conducted in February, 2023. The lights went out when Rogers Media shuttered Pacific Content in May of this year. Two months later, Pacific Content was acquired by UK-based podcast consulting and promotion service Lower Street.
The Now Of It
Tori Allen described the Sequel launch on LinkedIn: “Becoming a Co-founder was not on my bingo card this spring, but when my previous job making podcasts for brands evaporated, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity landed in my lap.” She described receiving suggestions from clients to start a company. “Connecting with the incredible Andy Sheppard made deciding a lot easier.”
Andy Sheppard posted a longer history that includes his introduction to Pacific Content founder Steve Pratt, and his early conversations with Tori Allen. “It’s been a whirlwind spinning up a new company in such a short period of time,” he observed. “Founding a company wasn’t even on my radar in May of this year. But we’ve had a lot of help from many generous friends and mentors in the industry.”
Sequel is located HERE.
