Dear Colleagues,

We hope you’ve all been enjoying what seems like the fastest summer ever. As we cope with the sudden return of fall, we’d like to give you a rundown of what we’ve been up to these past few weeks.

A New Leader for the Audio Team at The Times

In July, we shared the exciting news that Paula Szuchman, our former head of Opinion Audio, will become The Times’s new director of Audio. As director of Audio, Paula will manage the teams that make our shows to ensure that our journalism remains excellent, even as we scale to do more, and that we live up to our values in fostering an equitable and inclusive culture.

A little bit about Paula and why she’s the perfect person for this role: Paula is a creative and exacting editor who makes every story she works on better. She is a compassionate manager who understands the demands of audio production as well as print — she spent three years as a Page One editor at The Wall Street Journal. She has a proven track record in managing journalists across mediums — she ran production teams for five years at WNYC, working across a range of subjects from personal narratives to news. After eight years at The Wall Street Journal, she ran the newsroom at The Daily Beast and worked as an editor at Newsweek.

We could not be more excited about what this means for the future of The Daily and NYT Audio.

How ‘The Daily’ Covered Afghanistan’s Fall

Some episodes of The Daily come together over weeks. In the case of the episode that aired on Monday, August 16, it took a weekend. Responding to the rapid fall of Afghanistan’s government to the Taliban, the episode featured the visceral reactions of one resident of Kabul as she was witnessing the collapse of the country around her, day by day. (She was referred to only as the initial R., because she feared retaliation by the Taliban.) To shed light on the making of this episode — and the many choices and areas of expertise that combine to shape one show — three staff members talked about their roles: Lynsea Garrison, one of the producers; Larissa Anderson, an editor; and Chris Wood, a sound engineer who works in London.

You can read more about how they made this powerful episode of The Daily here.

Meeting The Guest Host: Sabrina Tavernise

Over the last several weeks, listeners were introduced to Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent for The Times — and a fantastic guest host of The Daily.

Recent episodes hosted by Sabrina delved into a breadth of stories, including a conversation with Natalie Kitroeff about Mexico and the problem of America’s lax approach to guns; a chat with Carlotta Gall about the Taliban’s strategy as the United States started to withdraw from Afghanistan; and an in-depth look at the story of Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, with Juliet Macur.

Sabrina started at The Times in Moscow in 2000 and spent her first 10 years as a foreign correspondent, based in Russia, Iraq and Pakistan, and in Turkey, where she was the Istanbul bureau chief. In Iraq, she covered civilian casualties and documented the lives of ordinary Iraqis from 2003 to 2007 and was one of the first to identify sectarian cleansing in 2005.

Here’s a little bit about Sabrina’s thoughts on hosting from a recent conversation with her and Michael:

Michael: I feel your bio perfectly set you up for this moment when we asked you to help host the show, because you’ve covered such big and rich and varied subjects around the globe. What’s the transition been like from reporter/Daily guest to having hosting responsibilities?

Sabrina: Hard! I love audio. Definitely my favorite medium. But I’m not used to actually creating it. So there’s a learning curve. But I love it.

I still feel like that cartoon T-rex trying. Like I have these really powerful legs from running but I’m being told that the one thing I need to do now is pull-ups and so I’m trying to do pull-ups with these little, undeveloped arms. And no one cares how fast I can run.

Michael: I love that metaphor. Hosting is… weird!

Sabrina: Hard! Yeah. It is weird. but great!

Michael Barbaro may be out for a few weeks this fall — look to APM for further details.

Until next time,
-The Daily Team

p.s. Thank you for taking the survey sent by APM about guest hosting and promotions. We will be taking your feedback into consideration as our team and the program continues to evolve.

Dear Colleagues,

As life returns to normal, we’re working to bring moments of serendipity to listeners alongside our news reporting. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been up to.

Special Guest Hosts

Some well-established Times journalists (and recurring guests of The Daily) are filling in for Michael Barbaro, who recently welcomed a baby with his partner. Michael will continue to voice the billboard of the show, even when the guest host leads the conversation with a reporter. Listeners will have the chance to hear new voices from The Times, such as the political correspondent Astead Herndon, the national correspondent Sabrina Tavernise and the technology columnist Kevin Roose.

Special Episodes

Curious listeners are always hungry to hear a good story. As The Daily team has grown, there’s been no shortage of rich, deeply reported journalism to be told through audio.

Over the past few weeks, listeners have been introduced to some of this signature enterprise journalism through the airwaves with special episodes, like Odessa and Day X. We’re excited by the opportunity to showcase not only some of the stellar talent on The Daily team, but voices from across The Times’s global newsroom, like Berlin bureau chief Katrin Bennhold.

We know listeners are eager to learn more about the world through audio storytelling. These episodes have allowed us to introduce more variety and news-adjacent programming into The Daily.

Odessa

Earlier this year we introduced Odessa, a four-part series about a West Texas high school reopening during the pandemic — and the teachers, students and nurses affected in the process.

On June 10, we celebrated Odessa High School’s commencement with a live event connecting listeners to Odessa students and faculty. The virtual event included a performance by Odessa’s award-winning marching band (which was featured in the second Odessa episode) and a commencement speech from La’Darius Marshall, star from the Netflix docuseries “Cheer.”

As we mentioned in our last note a few months ago, these episodes served as a model for The Daily’s approach to original reporting, which leads us to our most recent reporting project – Day X.

Day X

In Day X, our newest documentary series hosted by Berlin bureau chief Katrin Bennhold, hear all about Neo-Natzi’s and their alleged far-right assassination plot to take down the Federal Republic of Germany. It’s a swirling story of intrigue, faked identity, and the backlash about a changing national identity in Germany.

These episodes ask the question that they believe many nations are faction: “What happens when the threat is coming from within?” Katrin joined WNYC to discuss her reporting and the show.

Listeners Having Fun

If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? TikTok users are paying homage to the show by sharing their best Michael Barbaro impressions, full of dramatic pauses and moody background music. They’re even impersonating Michael to take on viral challenges.

Until next time,
-The Daily Team

Dear Colleagues,

In our many conversations with station leaders over the past few months, we promised greater communication between “The Daily” and public radio stations. This quarterly newsletter will be one element of that.

New Editor of “The Daily”

It’s been an eventful period for “The Daily.”

First off, we’re thrilled to report that Lisa Chow has been named editor of “The Daily.” A veteran audio journalist who has produced, hosted and edited high-impact podcasts for years, Lisa is now leading our efforts to lead the show into its next phase.

Prior to joining The Times in 2019, Lisa was an economics reporter for WNYC, NPR and Planet Money and a senior editor at FiveThirtyEight. She’s perhaps best known for her role as host of the “Start Up” podcast, where she lead the reporting of two high-regarded investigative series.

Lisa has razor-sharp news instincts and bottomless curiosity combined with a clear vision for how to build and manage strong teams. She was instrumental in leading “The Daily” through the pandemic, and we are so excited for her to take on an even bigger role.

New Processes

Since joining the team on an interim basis, Associate Managing Editor Cliff Levy, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, has been overseeing the editing of our latest multi-part narrative series, Odessa, about the experience of a school in West Texas during the pandemic. His involvement with the series will serve as a model for our approach to original-reporting in the future. At the same time, Cliff is continuing to implement new editing and fact-checking processes that bring the audio team closer to the rest of the newsroom.

D.E.I. Report

In company news, The New York Times released the findings of an intensive, nine-month review of its culture. The report found that while The Times had made meaningful progress in hiring over the past several years, bringing aboard hundreds of new journalists of color, it has not sufficiently changed its newsroom culture to ensure that everyone is able to thrive at The Times. The report, which has been embraced by the entire leadership of the company, calls for transformational and lasting change. Among the concrete list of actions the company has vowed to take: increase the representation of Black and Latino colleagues in leadership by 50 percent by 2025; create a new diversity, equity and inclusion office within the human resources; significantly increase the feedback, training and support we provide managers; establish clearer career expectations and pathways for development and advancement.

The actions recommended by the report will require the most substantial investment The Times has ever made — in terms of time, money and energy — in advancing our culture.

It’s a powerful, bracing and candid report and we recommend reading it.

Communication with Public Radio Stations

We are seeking new ways to solicit feedback from stations. For instance, “The Daily’s” deputy producer, Alexandra Leigh Young, is working with APM to better understand what stations need and want in promos for the show. Please reach out to your station relations representative with your feedback.

As we said, this newsletter is just one way we will be in touch with you. Please let us know what kind of information and updates are most useful to you in future newsletters.

Sam Dolnick
Assistant Managing Editor, The New York Times

In pursuit of transparency, APM wanted to bring to light how we’ve been collaborating with PRPD, our station partners, and The New York Times over the course of the last few weeks.

In collaboration with the Public Radio Program Directors Association and affiliate station leadership, APM sent a letter to our partners at The New York Times last night to inform them of the public radio network’s concerns concerning Caliphate and The Daily.

We deliver trusted programming to listeners across the country, and when that trust is shaken, we have a responsibility to ensure it is addressed. We are optimistic that our communication between The New York Times, PRPD, and our station partners continues a dialogue so that we further our collective work addressing journalistic principles and inequities in the workplace while serving audiences.

You can view The New York Times’ response to the open letter at this link.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to your APM Station Relations Representative.