''The Daily'' is a daily news

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

produced by the American newspaper ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', hosted by Michael Barbaro, Rachel Abrams, and Natalie Kitroeff. Its weekday episodes are based on the ''Times'' reporting of the day, with interviews of journalists from ''The New York Times''. Episodes typically last 20 to 30 minutes.

Background

''The Daily'' launched in January 2017, hosted by the ''Times'' political journalist Michael Barbaro, as an extension of ''The New York Times''' 2016 election-focused podcast, ''The Run-Up''. ''The Daily'' is based on interviews with ''Times'' journalists, in which they summarize and comment on their story, and is complemented by recordings related to the topic, or original reporting such as interviews with persons involved in the story, and letting them speak uninterrupted. A summary of headlines concludes the podcast. ''The Daily'' is free to listen and financed by advertising; it is profitable according to the ''Times''. The ''Times'' said it intended to build a news podcast franchise around it, beginning with a spin-off podcast, ''The New Washington'', in summer 2017. ''The New Washington'' ran from July 2017 until December of the same year. A children's edition of ''The Daily'' was also planned. In January 2019, ''The Daily'' launched a weekly newsletter. In March 2022, Barbaro was joined by the second host Sabrina Tavernise, following her guest hosting and reports including the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. In September 2024,

The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media corporation that publishes ''The New York Times'' and its associated publications such as ''The New York Times International Edition'' and other media properties. The New York Times Company's ...

launched podcast subscriptions to ''The Daily'' on Apple Podcasts and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

. Subscribers to The ''Times'' would be able to link their accounts to Apple Podcasts and Spotify, to listen to archived episodes and receive early access to new shows. Tavernise announced in December 2024 that she would be leaving ''The Daily'' to return to reporting for ''The New York Times''. In April 2025, it was announced that Rachel Abrams and Natalie Kitroeff would join Barbaro as co-hosts of the show.

Opening theme

The opening theme for ''The Daily'' is composed by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk, collectively known as Wonderly. Brunberg and Landsverk are long-time associates of Lisa Tobin, one of the podcast's producers. Barbaro suggested that Brunberg and Landsverk take inspiration from the theme music of the TV series ''Westworld'', composed by

Ramin Djawadi Ramin Djawadi (born 19 July 1974) is an Iranian-German film score composer, conductor, and record producer. He is known for his scores for the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', for which he was nominated for Grammy Awards in 2018 and 2020. He is al ...

. Andy Mills, one of the producers of the podcast, sent Brunberg and Landsverk music by Cliff Martinez from the TV series '' The Knick'', which also influenced ''The Daily'''s theme music.

Spinoff TV series

The success of the podcast led to a weekly documentary series ''The Weekly'' on FX, with its first episode airing on June 2, 2019. Initially, ''The Weekly'' was a narrative investigative journalism docuseries covering recent topical news and cultural stories, which later lead into longer documentaries, as ''

The New York Times Presents ''The New York Times Presents'' (previously ''The Weekly'') is an American narrative investigative journalism docuseries produced by ''The New York Times'' for FX and Hulu. The program has aired in two distinct formats. The first format, ''T ...

''.

Reception

Started in January 2017, ''The Daily'' became a noted success for the ''Times''; '' TheStreet'' described it as "a phenomenon, an out-of-the-blue hit." It had 3.8 million individual listeners by August 2017, and was regularly in the top ten most-listened podcasts by autumn 2017. ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' attributed this success, in part, to the podcast's "conversational and intimate" tone, which made news more accessible, and to Barbaro's " idiosyncratic intonation" (he is known to say "hmm" after interesting commentary from guests, a habit that has generated much online commentary from listeners). The podcast began being syndicated to radio by American Public Media in 2018. As of June 2018, the podcast receives 1.1 million downloads every weekday, and 2 million in January 2020. It was recognized as the Webby Voice of the Year, a Special Achievement award at the 2020 Webby Awards. In November 2024, Apple announced that the podcast was the No.1 most popular show on Apple Podcasts platform in 2024.

References

External links