The New York Times is extending 'The Daily' podcast to a newsletter as it tries to turn listeners into paying subscriptions

Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

Michael Barbaro, host of The New York Times' "The Daily" podcast, Michael Barbaro attends the 22nd Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on May 14, 2018, in New York.

• The New York Times' hit podcast "The Daily" now reaches 8 million monthly unique listeners, nearly double from a year ago.
• Now the Times is launching a newsletter to get them to read and subscribe as it aims for 10 million subscribers.
• The Times also is looking to expand "The Daily" to more events, multi-episode podcast series, and subscriber-only content.

The New York Times' popular Michael Barbaro-hosted news podcast "The Daily" is helping reach a big new audience, but now the Times wants to turn those listeners into readers into subscribers.

The Times today is launching a weekly newsletter tied to "The Daily," called, simply, The Daily. Led by Julia Simon, who was on the social team, the newsletter will go into the stories behind episodes and have elements like listener reaction, staff recommendations, and the like. There will be links to articles and house ads aimed at pushing people down the path to subscribe.

Read more: The New York Times has more subs than ever. That's not necessarily good news for the rest of the industry.

The Times is an increasingly subscriber-driven business, with two-thirds of revenue coming from readers and the rest from advertisers, and it's set a goal of exceeding 10 million subscribers by 2015, from 4.3 million now.

Last year, the Times ran an ad campaign to grow "The Daily" awareness with new listeners. With the newsletter, it's trying to engage existing ones more deeply.

"The Daily" has helped the Times reach a new audience that didn't already read or subscribe, and an increasingly younger one. Nearly 75% of its 8 million monthly unique listeners are 40 and under, according to Times survey data.

"In terms of people who are light touch, getting them more invested in what the Times is and having it be a gateway drug, the newsletter feels like a really good way to get them in," said Theo Balcomb, executive producer of "The Daily."

Making "The Daily" bigger has been an ongoing talking point of executives at the Times, which is looking to extend the franchise's successful formula to events and multi-episode series like last year's "Caliphate."

The plan is to do at least one more three- to five-episode podcast this year and grow from there, said Samantha Henig, editorial director of audio at the Times. Other goals are figuring out how to cater to international listeners, doing more reporting from the field, and creating content just for subscribers. To that end, "The Daily" is looking to add another six people to its team of 13, including a managing editor and news and narrative producers.

"We've created such a powerful megaphone with 'The Daily,'" Henig said. "New podcasts struggle to find an audience. If we can use 'The Daily' to launch new programs, we think we're at a real advantage."