NY Times expands Audio team

The following excerpt was sent out from director of audio Paula Szuchman:

Ben Calhoun, an editor at “This American Life,” will join The Times as executive producer of “The Daily.” Ben will be the senior manager of “The Daily’s” team of 50, running editorial operations, building ties with the core newsroom, helping to set long-term priorities and developing systems and structures to support the most ambitious work within a culture of collaboration, equity and transparency.

Since joining “This American Life” in 2010, he’s reported, produced and edited some of the program’s most memorable and decorated shows and stories.

Between 2014 and 2017, Ben left “This American Life” to serve as vice president of content and programming at WBEZ, Chicago’s public radio station. There, he oversaw all facets of the station’s editorial operations.

Ben will report to me and begin his new role on May 31.

His key partner will, of course, be Lisa Chow, who has deftly steered “The Daily” for the past year. Ben’s arrival will open up space for Lisa to focus on leading the editorial work of “The Daily,” where we all know she is enormously gifted. As the senior-most editor of “The Daily,” she’ll continue to help set editorial standards, run coverage and reporting, edit both enterprise and quick-turn stories and work with producers and editors to continually sharpen the work.

Lisa has a long history in audio journalism, as a reporter, a host and editor. She came to The Times in 2019 after working for nearly two decades as a reporter, starting at small newspapers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and then moving into audio as an economics reporter at WNYC and “Planet Money.”

With Ben and Lisa Chow in place to take “The Daily” forward, Lisa Tobin will turn her attention to building out the larger world of newsroom Audio. She’ll continue to tackle the biggest storylines of the day, while helping to stand up new series, shows and programming and working more closely with journalists across the newsroom and around the globe.

Lisa was brought in to build The Times audio team, and was the chief architect of “The Daily.”

As she looks toward new collaborations beyond “The Daily,” Lisa will be a key contact between the audio team and the rest of the newsroom — reporters, desks, as well as enterprise and masthead editors.