Plenty of radio stations produce daily news podcasts, but New York Public Radio’s WNYC is launching a new local news podcast that will update three times a day. The NYC Now podcast aims to reach listeners as they start their day, catch up at lunch, and then recap the day. Episodes will range from three to ten minutes. The series is being produced in partnership with its sister Gothamist website.
“It’s a part of our ambitious plan to bring together what you love about WNYC and Gothamist — to make vibrant local news available to our audience wherever they look for news, whether it’s on-air, online, or on-demand,” Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper said in a letter posted on Gothamist. She described it as “an accompaniment” to WNYC’s radio broadcasts, web stories on Gothamist, and the local and national hybrid podcast Consider This produced with NPR. “NYC Now is another way for you to get the news you need from the newsroom you trust in an on-demand audio format,” Cooper said.
The morning version of NYC Now will be on-demand versions of WNYC radio newscasts. The midday version will feature expanded coverage of developing news stories And the evening episode will be a roundup of the day’s local news.
Cooper says the new podcast is part of a wider expansion of their newsroom output with revamped newsletters, new website features and more live events planned. WNYC is also experimenting with new radio shows and special reports.
In a deal largely funded by two anonymous donors, WNYC acquired and revived the news site Gothamist in February 2018. Gothamist and the companion news site DNAinfo were previously owned by Joe Ricketts, the billionaire businessman who founded the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, after Ricketts shut down the two websites. WNYC’s acquisition was part of a larger deal involving two other public radio stations and Gothamist's network of local news sites. KPCC s Los Angeles acquired LAist, while WAMU in Washington acquired DCist.