For the last Newstrack report for #JO704, I talked about how the NYTimes has been branching into multimedia, and explored some episodes of its documentary style TV episodes, available on HULU and FX, called The Weekly.
Well, now I’m going to talk about some of the podcasts NYTimes has on offer, including The Daily.
Only 18 episodes of The Weekly had aired at the time of writing, but The Daily is, as the name suggests, Daily, and has been around since early 2017. According to the Hollywood reporter in April 2019, Sam Dolnick stated that “We don’t talk numbers, but it’s profitable,” when asked about the revenue for the podcast. The download numbers were impressive in 2017, according to The Street, with a headline ‘New York Times’ Breakthrough ‘The Daily’ Soars Past 100M download mark’.
The Daily, and other podcasts the NYTimes offers, can be listened to online, or downloaded on your mobile device via Apple Podcasts, RadioPublic, or Stitcher. For those who don’t like podcasts or can’t listen to them, a transcript of the podcast is also available on the NYTimes website.
Also provided under the podcast on the website is who is involved, and even some background reading with links for every episode of The Daily. There’s also a newsletter you can subscribe to “For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on the podcast come together,” the description reads for Inside ‘The Daily’.
Another popular podcast for the NYTimes is Modern Love, which began in 2016. The NYTimes describes the column as “A series of weekly reader-submitted essays that explore the joys and tribulations of love.” The podcasts are readings from the Modern Love column, allowing people who might not get the newspaper or read the column a chance to enjoy it. The host of the podcast is Meghna Chakrabarti, also the host of NPR’s On Point, and the editor of the column itself. The column also inspired an 8-part series on Amazon in October.
I wonder if the move to podcasting was inevitable for the publication. All of the legacy print media were being threatened by the popularity of other ways of enjoying news. Although extremely popular, unlike newsletters, where you have dozens of options to choose from, there aren’t as many podcasts that the NYTimes is producing. Given their popularity, and how well they’ve been doing, this seems like a missed opportunity to offer more multimedia options for users.
Lillian W Eden 