The Gray Lady has been taking notes from NPR and the BBC as it seeks to centralise its audio offerings into one product.

It’s not yet clear what ‘New York Times Audio’ will look like or whether it will resemble the BBC Sounds or The NPR One app, but the development project does come after the great success of The Daily and the acquisition of Serial Productions and Audm in 2020. 

We do know that the product, which is undergoing private beta testing and is initially only available on iPhones, will be curated by Times journalists and editors, with a mission to help listeners “engage with the latest news, ideas, criticism and stories that matter to them”.

As for the content, articles, podcasts, new audio formats (to be confirmed) and content from magazine publishers like New York magazine and Rolling Stone will feature.

The Times now has more than 8m print and digital subscribers and reaches 20m listeners each month, enough to give some established audio platforms a headache. 

💼 Other business 

• WaPo has unveiled its Next Generation team, a cross-departmental initiative aimed at accelerating the acquisition of younger and more diverse readers.

• AP’s climate reporting hub gets Murdoch backing, while the news agency launches a series of NFTs.

• Inside the mind of Kevin Merida, the new executive editor of the L.A. Times.

• Punchbowl, the Politico challengers, continues to grow its team.

• The editor of The Sydney Morning Herald has resigned.

• The Information is expanding into HR journalism.

• Reach hires industry-first online safety editor.

• What Axel Springer has planned for Politico. 

• The FT has lunch with Andrew Neil.

🎧 Podcast world 

• UK's Audioboom continues to outpace the global podcasting industry. The company posted record quarterly revenues of $16.9m in the three months to the end of September, representing a hike of 161% on Q3 2020.

👨‍💻 Technology 

• How committed is Facebook to its metaverse vision? The company is planning to hire 10,000 people across the EU over the next five year. The business, meanwhile, has continued to take a bullish approach to PR, calling out 30 unnamed journalists.

• Netflix has beaten Wall Street’s expectations with its Q3 2021 earnings. The platform now has 222m customers and expects to add a further 8.5m subscribers in December.

📧 Contact

For high-praise, tips or gripes, please contact the editor at iansilvera@gmail.com or via @ianjsilvera. Follow on LinkedIn here.

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