• by Ray Schultz , March 5, 2024

The New York Times expected maybe 2,000 downloads when it launched "The Daily Podcast" in 2017. But it quickly garnered "42 million downloads," said Jimmy Saunders, the paper's executive director of audio & events, during the keynote session of the recent Publishing Insider Summit in Bonita Springs, Florida.

Still, the Times now has only nine podcast brands, and is careful about adding new ones. 

"We are not your traditional audio publisher," Saunders pointed out. 

The current lineup "does not reflect the total breadth of the New York Times, and I don't think it ever could," he added. 

“The journalism is the basis of everything we do in audio,” Saunders noted. The Times will not force podcasts into subject areas unless it is convinced they are needed by listeners. Such podcasts as Modern Love and Ezra Klein were built on solid bases.

An outsider might marvel at the sheer workload. "It takes 32 people working 65 hours to produce a 30- or 40-minute episode," Saunders said.

As for advertising, the Times believes in “creating a white space for a brand being able to tell their story,” and it adheres to that in its podcast production, Saunders said. “We don’t stack ads.” Instead, the Times offers a clean experience, with white space where there’s an ad. It had a maximum of three ads per podcasts. 

Are most advertisers doing their own creative? It varies. “Traditional audio advertisers have their own stuff,” Saunders explained. Brands new to audio, which are a huge focus for the Times, “need a little more hand-holding guidance.”

In contrast, Vox has many offerings and is a top 10 podcast publisher. But it is less interested in volume than in having the “most influential show across every consumer passion point: music, politics, culture and sports,” said Lillian Xu, executive director, audio business, Vox Media.

Vox has shows with highly engaged audiences and favorite hosts. And while the majority of podcasts are ad-driven in terms of revenue, some have subscriptions. 

Having scaled up, Vox can do crossover episodes that bring in new listeners to particular podcasts. It is also now bundling its ad offerings via multi-platform campaigns, Xu reported.