#Pineapple Street Studios Finds New Leaders as Co-Founders Step Aside

Pineapple Street Studios, the podcasting shop behind Will Be Wild and the official Succession companion podcast, has named longtime staffers Bari Finkel and Je-Anne Berry as the studio’s new co-heads.

Finkel and Berry will take over leadership of the studio from co-founders Jenna Weiss-Berman and Max Linsky, who founded Pineapple Street in 2016 and guided the company through its 2019 acquisition by broadcaster Audacy.

The duo will report up to Weiss-Berman, who was named the evp of podcasts for Audacy in March and now oversees all of Audacy’s podcasting efforts, including for subsidiaries Cadence13, 2400 Sports and Audacy’s local news stations, as well as Pineapple Street.

Following Weiss-Berman’s promotion, Linsky had continued to lead Pineapple Street with then–head of operations Finkel. But as of this week, Linsky will step aside and become a senior podcast strategist for Audacy, where he will continue to executive produce podcasts for the company.

In interviews with The Hollywood Reporter, Weiss-Berman and Linsky praised Finkel and Berry for their leadership in shepherding major studio and brand partnerships with HBO, Netflix, Amazon, Mailchimp and Tommy Hilfiger, among others, to Pineapple Street.

“There had come a point where it just became clear to me that not only did [Finkel and Berry] not need me anymore, but they were better at it than I was — and that’s a humbling moment, but also just a thrilling one,” Linsky said. “This company has so wildly exceeded any expectations that I had, and so much of that is thanks to Jenna, who always had a much bigger vision for it than I did. But it’s also thanks to all of the incredible people that work here who made the thing what it is.”

Finkel joined Pineapple Street as its first full-time employee back in 2016 — going so far as to break her foot from jumping for joy when she first got the job, she tells THR — and has overseen the studio’s companion series business, which has included partnerships for shows like HBO’s The Last of Us, Netflix’s Stranger Things and Amazon’s The Rings of Power. These series account for roughly a third of Pineapple Street’s revenue and sit alongside other business areas like brand projects and original series.

Berry joined the team in 2020 to lead the brands team, which has created shows like The 4 Percent with Zapier and the Georgia Innocence Project, The Invisible Seam with Tommy Hilfiger and Humans vs. Machines with Aventine, among others.

As co-heads, Finkel and Berry will take over leadership of Pineapple’s 53-person team, whose members unionized last year with the Writers Guild of America, East and are in the midst of the collective bargaining process. The two will also be tasked with helping Pineapple Street weather a tumultuous period in podcasting, which has resulted in major layoffs, show cancelations and shutdowns for podcasting studios at rivals like Spotify and a downturn in advertising revenue. Parent company Audacy is also in the midst of its own financial struggles, and the company’s stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last month after falling under the minimum closing price threshold.

Still, Pineapple Street has seen consistent revenue growth since its 2019 acquisition, according to Weiss-Berman, and has been recognized with awards like the Webbys, Gracie Awards, Edward R. Murrow Awards, the Ambies and the American Society of Magazine Editors’ Ellie award. And because Pineapple Street never raised any outside funding, the studio has always prioritized “understand[ing] how to make money in this industry,” Weiss-Berman said.

“We’re pretty ahead, in a way, because we’ve been working for seven years on trying to profit in podcasting and not just trying to spend and experiment,” Weiss-Berman said. “In that way, I feel psyched about the future of podcasting right now because … it happens in every industry. You’ve got to figure out how to make and not to spend, basically, and we’ve been thinking about that for years.”

In looking toward Pineapple Street’s future, both Finkel and Berry note the studio’s flexibility as one of its key differentiators. “Pineapple doesn’t just make one type of show or just work with one type of partner,” Berry said, “and so that’s really positioned us to not be reactive, per se, but to be strategic in how we structure ourselves, the types of shows we make [and] who we partner with.”

“It’s not just ad revenue. It’s not just licensing originals. It’s not just work-for-hire production. It’s everything,” Finkel added. “And the fact that Je-Anne and I have both had a lot of experience in those different areas, I think it’s going to be something that is going to really set us up for success.”

In the meantime, Finkel and Berry are preparing to hunker down — with plenty of Post-It notes, Finkel jokes — to map out Pineapple’s next era.

“There’s a lot about how we approach work that is complementary,” Berry said, “so it just feels really well suited. I’m excited and energized, and I feel very supported and equipped and confident on where we’re heading.”