The New York Times sprints back to podcasts
The New York Times was nervous about podcasts just a few years ago. They moved away from the medium to pursue other digital outlets. But now, they are coming around with a new offering of podcasts to compete with many other media outlets. On February first the Times launched its podcast “The Daily” a podcast that comes out Monday through Friday with highlights of the New York Times edition each day.
The organization has also released podcasts that focus on specific subjects. “Popcast” is a discussion podcasts with some of the paper’s music writers and “The Run Up” is a politics podcasts focused on contemporary politics. These new podcasts are all displayed with abstract designs with bright colors that evoke a digital, millennial-friendly aesthetic. The newspaper of record clearly wants the tone of these podcasts to be more personal and casual than its print and online written content.
The Times first dipped its venerable toes into the podcast stream in 2006 with their “Front Page” podcast. This podcast consisted of a reporter briefly summarizing the stories that made the front page of the New York Times each day. Episodes were around 10 minutes long and were fairly dry, consisting of one male reporter reading from a script with urgent intro/outro music. I listened to this podcast for a few years and I enjoyed it despite its dryness. It was punchy and efficient and I would go to the website to read an article that had been mentioned. But, the podcast ended in 2012 when the Times decided to cancel all but two of its podcasts.
In a story about the cancellation in The Atlantic, a representative for the Times said: “We are constantly evaluating our products and have decided to redirect some investments away from certain podcasts, which had a limited following and toward other digital projects.”
Times have changed in five years and podcasts’ audience has become less limited. Consequently the New York times is doubling-back on podcasts. According to Politico, the Times has partnered with Art19, a digital media company, to design its podcast platform.
The podcasts themselves are light on production and none of them are particularly unique. I think the paper wants to keep them all under the same umbrella of “The New York Times Podcasts” but in doing so it reigns in the producers. I think the times should see its podcasts less as byproducts of its written print and web editions and more as individual works.
