Inside The New York Times’ Next Big Bet: ‘The Interview’ (Exclusive)
The New York Times features interviews every day. In its news report, in its podcasts like The Daily, in The New York Times Magazine.
But there was, to hear deputy managing editor Sam Dolnick explain, something missing.
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“We didn’t have the really big flagship audio show that interviewed the biggest names in culture, and a place like The New York Times should,” Dolnick says.
On April 27, the Times will remedy that problem, launching what it is calling The Interview, a new franchise that will include an audio podcast, and a print version that will run in The New York Times Magazine. The Interview will be led by Talk columnist David Marchese, as well as Times audio host Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
“It felt like we had different versions of this with David’s column and some work that Lulu’s done in other parts, but we wanted to kind of build off the playbook of The Daily and The Morning and some of our other projects that just kind of kind of plant the flag and go right at the big stories of the day,” Dolnick adds. “And so a big interview platform for The New York Times seemed like kind of a no brainer to us.”
Marchese and Garcia-Navarro have already lined up a slew of bookings, from Anne Hathaway and Ted Sarandos to Yair Lapid and Charlamagne Tha God. The goal is to have a mix of interesting people, from actors and musicians to politicians, executives, or other interesting guests.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to want it to be, you know, five Hollywood people in a row or four politicians in a row,” Marchese says. “And in terms of the newsiness versus evergreen aspect, it sounds like a cliche, but I just think we’re looking for a good balance of those things.”
In a crowded marketplace for interview shows, The Interview is hoping to stand out not just in the quality of its bookings, or in the brand identity of the Times, but with an interesting twist on the format as well. Every subject will be interviewed twice: Once for an initial conversation, likely in studio, and a second interview days later, over a phone call or a Zoom.
“That’s the whole kind of joy of broadcasting, which is, you know, it all happens in the moment, but it’s also one of the limitations, in which you always end up with this feeling — I always do — of ‘oh my God, why didn’t I ask this?’ or ‘oh, I should have really followed up with that,'” says Garcia-Navarro. “And this really kind of allows you to take a second bite out of it, shape it in a different way.”
“I don’t know of another interview show that does that, and what we’ve learned in doing that is that being able to talk to somebody twice after both you as the interviewer and the subject have been able to absorb the first conversation, it just adds a layer of richness and depth and rigor to the interviews that sort of in our piloting, and in the interviews that we’ve done for the new show already, I think has been really compelling,” Marchese adds.
“It has been fascinating to see how people come back,” Garcia-Navarro continued. “They’ve been thinking about the conversation themselves. They often reference that, and it just takes this you know what we’re doing to a different level.”
And with The Interview having a visual component as well, both in the print magazine and digitally, the Times has developed a unique “look” to the franchise that Dolnick says he hopes can develop into something that consumers recognize and look out for: A hazy black and white design where shadows play as much a role in defining the subject as the light does.
“One of the things that’s fun about this project is its multimedium multidisciplinary approach,” Dolnick says. “So you know, what’s the best way to present an audio interview? What’s the best way to present this to our digital readers? And then also, what’s the signature look of it? We’ve had designers, photographers, trying all the different approaches, and we’ve landed on something that I hope will be quite distinctive and striking, the look of it.
“We take that really seriously too, the sound of it, the look of it, but you know, for us at the Times now, a modern project has to integrate all of those things, And we’ve got people who take each of those disciplines really seriously and are really good at it,” Dolnick adds.
You can listen to the trailer for The Interview, here.
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