'NYT' To Launch 'Daily' Podcast With Michael Barbaro

The New York Timeswill launch a new daily podcast hosted by Michael Barbaro called “The Daily.” The show, which is billed as “a reimagining of a daily audio report for a digital audience,” will debut on February 1. It will include a text messaging component and will be available on Alexa-enabled devices.

Each 15-20 minute weekday show will publish at 6 a.m. and will focus on the news of the day, featuring two to four stories.

BMW is the official launch sponsor of The Daily.

Listeners can tune in on the Times’ site and mobile apps, or subscribe on Apple’s Podcast app or podcast app of choice.

A unique element of this audio show is Barbaro, who will communicate with listeners via text message. He will “share context, analysis and thoughts” on the day’s news with readers via SMS, as well as “act as a personal guide” to the news.

When you subscribe to his text messaging service, an automated text reply reads, “Michael Barbaro here from the NYT, ready to help you make sense of the news… More soon!”

The Daily will be available as a Flash Briefing on Alexa-enabled devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home. This is the first show available on Alexa devices from The New York Times; publishers like The Atlantic Media’s Quartz and The Washington Post have been on this feature for a few months now. (WaPo owner, Jeff Bezos, is also CEO of Amazon).

The Times is likely hoping to achieve similar success with its morning audio show as it has experienced with its popular morning email briefing newsletter.

“Our readers have always turned to us first thing in the morning to help them understand the world. Now, with our new audio report, we're able to explain the news in a whole new way,” stated Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times.

Michael Barbaro joined the newspaper in 2005. He covered the presidential campaign and hosted The Run-Up, a politics podcast the Times launched in August.

The Times has recently upped its investment in audio shows. Associate editor Sam Dolnick told Politico’s Morning Media earlier this month the newspaper hopes to introduce up to five new podcasts this year, adding to its existing seven series. Last year, the it launched four podcasts.

“In text, reporters are just grey bylines that most people may not even notice. … But in audio, our reporters become personalities, your friends, your guides, and we think the loyalty that engenders will draw people deeper into the New York Timesecosystem,” Dolnick told Morning Media.
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