NBC News, MSNBC Dive Deeper Into Podcasts

On Monday, NBC News is announcing the first of several hires this year for its digital audio and podcasts group, which was formed in November 2018. That group, just two people at present, could grow up to 10 people by the end of the year, according to Steve Lickteig, the executive producer of audio and podcasts for NBC News and MSNBC.

According to digiday.com, the group will not only help NBC News and MSNBC TV and digital producers develop podcasts around existing shows, but dream up standalone podcast shows tackling daily news and deeply reported narrative non-fiction.

A group of four will serve as a kind of in-house advisory team to existing NBC News and MSNBC TV and digital operations; a separate group of up to six will focus on producing and conceiving original shows. The centerpiece of the second group’s efforts next year will be a podcast focused on the 2020 election.

That show will start out weekly before eventually becoming a daily show as the election season builds momentum. The long-term goal is to turn the momentum and habit the publisher builds with the election show into the foundation of a daily news show, an increasingly competitive category that’s attracted news publishers including The New York Times, Vox, Slate and the Washington Post.

While NBC News and MSNBC have had podcasts for years, until recently they were mostly audio-only versions of the broadcasters’ linear TV shows, including “Meet the Press” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.”