The New York Times announces new role in Audio for Jen Poyant

Jen Poyant

To anyone listening, a lot has changed in Audio over the past few years. New formats. New voices. New collaborations with Video and ambitious new audience strategies. At every turn, Jen Poyant has played a vital role. As an editor, she’s quick and nimble, pushing for speed and creativity when news breaks, and surprise and delight during revealing conversations. She’s guided teams through times of transition, projecting calm and steadiness even when balancing 15 different things at once.

Which is why I’m thrilled to share the news that Jen has been promoted to deputy director for Audio. In this new role, Jen will be a key partner to me, Larissa Anderson and Lisa Tobin in helping set Audio’s mission and direction. She’ll work closely with our burgeoning podcast video team, led by Brooke Minters, to operationalize a new way of working across two mediums and develop shows designed to thrive in both worlds. Jen will continue to oversee “Hard Fork” — one of our first podcasts to cross the audio-video divide — and “Modern Love” — our first podcast to make Andrew Garfield cry for an audience of five million people on TikTok. She’ll use her sharp news judgment to steer both shows as they expand deeper into video and creative new approaches to storytelling and conversation.

“I asked ChatGPT to describe Jen, and it called her a ‘visionary audio editor with a keen ear for narrative and a deep commitment to journalistic integrity.’ That is all true,” said Kevin Roose, co- host of “Hard Fork,” “but what A.I. doesn’t know is that Jen is also a deeply skilled manager. Her empathy, clear communication and comfort with complexity have been huge assets to ‘Hard Fork.’”

Anna Martin, host of the “Modern Love” podcast, says, “Jen has been one of the biggest factors in my growth as a host and a leader. She has a remarkable ability to identify what needs to be improved. And then, she executes — and empowers the people around her to do the same.”

Jen is a journalist with an entrepreneurial curiosity that has served her well throughout her career, from her early days producing and leading live radio teams to developing and launching podcasts across a broad range of coverage areas. She’s an ambitious, collaborative polymath — the kind that doesn’t grow on trees — who will be instrumental as Audio innovates and expands. Please join me in congratulating Jen.