NYTimes Names Leadership Changes at The Daily

Paige Cowett has been named Editor in Chief of The New York Times’ flagship news podcast “The Daily,” with former Gimlet Media executive Nazanin Rafsanjani joining as Managing Editor, as the program nears its second decade.

The appointments, announced internally by Deputy Managing Editor Sam Dolnick, position the show for a new phase focused on growth. Cowett, who has been with “The Daily” since its earliest days and helped shape its editorial voice and coverage of major news events, will oversee daily editorial decisions and the podcast’s longer-term direction. Rafsanjani arrives with a mandate that includes expanding the show’s reach through video and new formats.

Dolnick emphasized in a staff email that Cowett’s interest in experimenting with video and new formats will be central to the next phase as The Times works to attract new audiences. The changes come as “The Daily,” one of the most influential news podcasts, continues to adapt its storytelling and distribution strategies nearly a decade after its launch.

The Daily remains one of the top podcasts in the U.S. and a consistent leader in the news category as of late 2026, roughly nine years after its 2017 launch.⁠

Current Rankings and Audience Size

In Podscribe’s October 2026 rankings:#2 in audio reach with approximately 8.7 million monthly listeners (people who download at least one episode; excludes YouTube).

#3 in monthly plays with 39.1 million total plays (downloads + views across platforms).
It also ranked in the top 10 for plays per episode.⁠

In Podtrac’s October 2026 U.S. rankings (based on unique monthly audience for measured shows):#2 overall, behind Crime Junkie. It has held this position or #1 in recent months (it topped the chart in May 2026 before settling at #2).⁠

Other platform signals include frequent #1 rankings on Apple Podcasts in the U.S. Top Podcasts and News categories, plus strong placement on Spotify (often #1 or near the top in News).

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Scale and Context

The show has published roughly 3,000 episodes since its January 2017 debut and maintains a near-daily cadence (typically six days a week).⁠ It carries high listener satisfaction, with roughly 4.4 stars across ~150,000–159,000 ratings on major platforms.⁠

Audience is heavily U.S.-centric (around 65% from the United States in available geographic breakdowns), with smaller shares from the UK, Canada, and elsewhere.⁠

The Daily reached 1 billion cumulative downloads by September 2019, when it was already generating roughly 2 million downloads on a typical morning and was described as the country’s most popular news podcast. It has sustained elite status in the intervening years as the broader podcast market has grown and video/YouTube consumption has become more important for many shows.