Tag: #grad

Jo 704 Newstrack

NY Times-Multimedia Part 2: The Podcasts

lillianweden

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’.

Credit: NYTimes website, captured on desktop at 12:01PM on November 18, 2019

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.

Credit: NYTimes website, captured on desktop at 12:05PM on November 18, 2019

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’.

Credit: NYTimes desktop website at 12:26PM on October 18, 2019

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.

Jo 704 Newstrack

NY Times-All the newsletters

lillianweden

The New York Times newsletters are a way to get highlights of the news delivered straight to your inbox. The general newsletter arrives six days a week, every weekday and one for the weekend. They’re particularly convenient if you’re in a rush or don’t have time to read the full newspaper. The format suits both desktop and mobile, with none of the translational issues sometimes seen when something is available on both.

Credit: New York Times Morning Briefing Newsletter, captured on desktop at 10:44 AM on October 21, 2019.

For the general newsletter, each one typically consists of multiple sections, just as the actual paper would, in manageably readable chunks. The top stories each have a few hundred words, sometimes a picture, and often hyperlinks within the blurbs relevant to the article. For particularly important topics, especially in politics, there will also be brief sections following the blurb. Today, for example, for the blurb about Turkey and nuclear weapons, there is a related link, about Trump, another angle, from the Kurdish, and a link to the podcast The Daily about a relevant topic.

Credit: Morning Briefing from the New York Times, phone screenshot captured at 10:40AM on October 21, 2019.

Additionally, because so much of the newsletter would have been taken up by news of the impeachment, the NYTimes decided to create a separate newsletter for all those already subscribed to the regular newsletter. It can be unsubscribed from easily, but it keeps the regular newsletter feeling less dominated by contentious politics in the U.S.

There are other sections in the main newsletter, including, wonderfully, ‘Now a break from the news,’ which I always enjoy, because I really feel like I need it these days.

Typically seen here are recipes, gallery recommendations, book and TV recommendations, and sometimes a fluffy interest piece, like today, ‘here’s how to clean your sneakers.’

A daily newsletter on the top stories isn’t the only thing on offer, however. At nytimes.com/news, one can view the full list of just how many newsletters the New York Times offers, a brief summary, and how often they’re sent to you. You can even click to see a sample of what you can expect to see. There are so many they’re separated by section, such as News and Politics, and Opinion. It looks like there’s only one in a foreign language, but hopefully they’re working on that.

Credit: New York Times, Captured on desktop at 11:00 AM on October 21, 2019.

This is a great thing that they’re offering, a little sample of the kind of news you’d like to see, delivered right to your inbox.