{"id":138506,"date":"2026-02-19T06:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138506\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T06:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:45:10","slug":"nypr-refocuses-nyc-now-on-investigations-scales-back-frequency-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138506\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPR Refocuses \u2018NYC Now\u2019 On Investigations, Scales Back Frequency. | Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly three years after New York Public Radio and its online news site Gothamist launched the \u201cNYC Now<\/a>\u201d as a three-times-a-day news update podcast, the series is getting a significant makeover. The producers say the local news will continue to drive the stories, but the series will be revamped with a focus on investigative and enterprise reporting. And rather than producing three episodes a day, new episodes will instead drop three days a week \u2014 Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC Now was launched in 2023<\/a> to give New Yorkers another way to access WNYC and Gothamist\u2019s top stories and timely local news updates. It was a pioneering format \u2014 radio headlines made available as on-demand audio \u2014 that was replicated by other public radio stations,\u201d says Stephanie Clary, Interim Editor-in-Chief of WNYC and Gothamist. \u201cSince then, we\u2019ve found that what \u2018NYC Now\u2019 listeners gravitated to was our special investigations and long-form enterprise reporting. The podcast will still give listeners quick, need-to-know updates, but with a sharper focus on original in-depth stories about the city and people who make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janae Pierre remains the host of the \u201cNYC Now\u201d podcast, with the show now bringing into the mix interviews, original reporting and guest analysis as it works to help listeners understand what is happing in New York.<\/p>\n

The format debuts this week with an investigation into the growing number of illegal tow trucks in New York, and how their predatory practices put drivers at risk. WNYC and Gothamist parks and sanitation reporter Liam Quigley was able to capture how many unlicensed tow trucks are on city streets by analyzing speed and red-light camera data. He found that a shift in NYPD policy away from responding to less serious car crashes has allowed unlicensed tow trucks to thrive, seizing on opportunities to profit from insurance payouts and junk fees. Unlicensed tow truck drivers have also amassed over 3,000 red light and speeding tickets over the last year alone and have been involved in fatal crashes that have left at least 15 people dead since 2010. Quigley\u2019s report includes an interview with a woman who was shot as tow truck drivers fought over her damaged car.<\/p>\n

Every other Friday, WNYC and Gothamist\u2019s culture editor Matthew Schnipper will take listeners inside a corner of New York\u2019s arts and culture scene. That will begin this week with a look at new Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s use of cultural references, curling clubs at Prospect Park, and the \u201cultimate\u201d New York sandwich, which Schnipper thinks is the tuna melt.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC Now\u201d is produced by Senior Producer Jared Marcelle and Assistant Producer Iru Ekpunobi. The show was honored with a 2026 duPont-Columbia Award and was a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist for audio journalism for its special investigation<\/a> into sexual assault at Rikers Island. The podcast also received an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award, New York Press Club Award and a Front Page Award for an investigative series<\/a> on a doctor with a track record of medical negligence who continued to practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly three years after New York Public Radio and its online news site Gothamist launched the \u201cNYC Now\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11301,9,12,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-138506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-free","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}