The New York Times may have grabbed an early lead with The Daily but a newspaper rival on the West Coast is hardly waving the white flag. The Los Angeles Times is ramping up its own podcast efforts. The L.A. Times will make its biggest commitment to the medium to date with the debut next month of The Times: Daily News from the L.A. Times. Hosted by L.A. Times columnist Gustavo Arellano, the new daily news podcast will be released each morning and run a half hour or less. The series is slated to debut May 3.
L.A. Times Deputy Managing Editor for Entertainment, Audio and Strategy Julia Turner told Digiday that they believe there is an audience looking for a West Coast perspective to the day’s news. The new series will have a “California first” mission, with issues such as climate, immigration, and what is happening in Asia playing a bigger part of the story mix. The Times did a test run of a daily news podcast in April 2020.
Similar to The Daily, the L.A. Times’ podcast will rely on newspaper reporters to share their insights on stories. It will also include interviews and reported stories produced in the field. Digiday says the paper has hired three producers and an engineer to work on the new podcast.
The Times: Daily News from the L.A. Times will become the newspaper’s second daily morning podcast. It also publishes the L.A. Times Morning Briefing each weekday, running three minutes. It also produces several other weekly series. It also co-produced the hit Dirty John with Wondery, which has had more than 70 million downloads so far.
A company rep told Digiday that podcast revenue has “grown significantly” the past couple years for the paper. Those numbers could grow more rapidly this year as the L.A. Times tests the appetite for subscriptions. Its new series The Trials of Frank Carson will be free, but subscribers of the newspaper will reportedly have access to eight bonus episodes.