NEW YORK–(COMMERCIAL WIRE) – The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) announced today that it would acquire Serial Productions, the company that produces the groundbreaking “Serial” podcast. In addition to the acquisition, The Times also announced that it had entered into an ongoing creative and strategic alliance with “This American Life” that will allow it to continue collaborating on long-running audio stories with Serial Productions and collaborating in marketing and advertising sales with The Times. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Serial Productions is a team of the best and most successful audio narrative journalists and storytellers led by Julie Snyder, Sarah Koenig and Neil Drumming. Each episode of the first season of “Serial” downloaded 20 million times on average and is credited with igniting the current podcast boom. “This American Life” is the iconic long-running weekly public radio show, founded by presenter and executive producer Ira Glass.
As a Times company, Serial Productions will commission and edit their own stories, and now The Times will amplify them. The acquisition will allow the Series team to tell more stories and produce more series than they previously had.
With “The Daily”, “Serial” and the strategic alliance with “This American Life”, The Times has brought together three of the world’s leading audio brands. Along with other shows and series topping the charts, including “1619,” “Rabbit Hole,” and “Caliphate,” as well as Audm’s recent acquisition, The Times will continue to develop new listening habits in a variety of formats. Creating a robust audio report aligns with the company’s broader goal to help audiences understand the world around them through journalistic storytelling.
Meredith Kopit Levien, COO of The New York Times Company, said: “We have seen the power that audio can have to build deeper connections with our audience and we are committed to providing listeners with the best audio journalism in the world. What better way to show that commitment than by acquiring ‘Serial’, the most famous and innovative podcast series ever produced and partnering with ‘This American Life’, a show that simply transformed the genre. We launched ‘The Daily’ in 2017 and it has quickly become the most listened to news podcast in the country. Our goal is to continue to evolve our audio offerings and chart a sustainable course for high-quality immersive audio journalism. ”
Sam Dolnick, an assistant managing editor overseeing the Times’ audio, said: “We have been huge admirers of ‘This American Life’ and ‘Serial’ for years and their work has inspired and informed ours. We trust that the ‘Series’ and ‘This American Life’ teams share our desire to continue to find innovative ways to tell stories, increase audience, and help more and more people better understand the world. They are as mission motivated as we are and we are very excited to welcome them to The Times family. ”
Julie Snyder, executive editor at Serial Productions, said: “We are incredibly proud of ‘Serial’ and wanted to find a home where we felt shared values, one where we received support and resources to tell more stories, of the highest quality. We are We are delighted to join The Times, where they have demonstrated a commitment to pursuing the possibilities of long-standing audio and narrative journalism. ”
Ira Glass said: “For years, when people ask me to recommend a podcast, the first one I mention is ‘The Daily’. Effusively. Run over. It’s so impressive how The Times jumped into audio journalism and made a show that uses the medium so well. I also love how ‘The Daily’ and the other Times podcasts are narrative journalism, like our show. They tell stories, with characters and feelings, and, of course, because they are The Times, a lucid analysis of the world around us. I can’t imagine a better partner for journalism than we and ‘Serial’ make than The Times, and I look forward to continuing to invent this still young world of podcasting with them by our side. ”
As Serial Productions joins The Times, the team plans to produce a series of shows and series under the banner of The Times and Serial Productions. The first, “Nice White Parents,” will bring listeners together with award-winning reporter Chana Joffe-Walt as she examines the role white families play in shaping public education. You can listen to the trailer tomorrow, with the first two episodes available on Thursday, July 30 at NYTimes.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
“This American Life” remains an independent company and will continue its weekly broadcasts on public radio and its podcast.
For more information on the acquisition of The Times, our expanding audio portfolio and the future of our audio journalism, read a note on NYTCo.com/press by Dean Baquet, The Times Executive Editor Meredith Kopit Levien, Sam Dolnick and Stephanie Preiss, The Vice President of The Times President of Audio and Television.
LionTree Advisors LLC acts as financial advisor, Lauren Zalaznick as strategic advisor, and Lowenstein Sandler acts as legal advisor to Serial and This American Life. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP are acting as legal advisers to The Times.
About the New York Times Company
The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) is a global media organization dedicated to improving society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news and information. The Company includes The New York Times, NYTimes.com and related properties. He is known worldwide for excellence in his journalism and for innovation in his print and digital storytelling and business model. Follow the news about the company on @NYTimesPR.
On serial productions
With the launch of the first season of “Serial” in 2014, Serial Productions made “podcast” a household word and served as a launch pad for today’s podcasting industry. Formed by the producers of “This American Life,” Serial Productions has produced the most listened-to podcasts in the world, with more than 625 million downloads over three seasons of the Serial podcast and its other successful podcast, “S-Town.” Known for both its critical and commercial success, Serial Productions specializes in high-production narratives and gripping narrative. Serial shows have won almost every major broadcast award, including duPont-Columbia, Scripps Howard, Edward R. Murrow, and the first Peabody to be awarded to a podcast.
About “This American Life”
Founded in 1995 by presenter and executive producer Ira Glass, “This American Life” originated and popularized a style of narrative journalism that is based on compelling characters and arcs of emotional stories, with humor and surprising ideas, all in a conversational tone. “This American Life” invented a style of storytelling that is widely attributed to establishing the sound of the modern podcast. It is also the world’s most popular weekly podcast, with more than 2.8 million downloads per episode, as well as 2.2 million weekly listeners on 500 public radio stations. “This American Life” won the first Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting in May 2020.
About “The Daily”
Since its release in February 2017, “The Daily” has redefined how news sounds. On any given day of the week, the show is now downloaded more than three million times, making it the most popular news podcast in the country. Hosted by Michael Barbaro and powered by the newsroom of the New York Times, “The Daily” offers listeners the most important stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. “The Daily” was nominated for a Peabody Award in 2019 and won a DuPont-Columbia University Award for Audio Excellence in 2017. “The Daily” is broadcast by more than 200 public radio stations across the country.
Some of the statements included in this press release, including those regarding the integration of this business and strategic objectives, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those predicted by such forward-looking statements. . These risks and uncertainties include risks periodically detailed in documents publicly filed by The New York Times Company, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 29, 2019 and the Quarterly Report on Form 10 -Q for the fiscal year quarter ended March 29, 2020. The New York Times Company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
This press release can be downloaded from www.nytco.com
