The New York Times is in the process of creating an audio team that will work to launch a handful of new podcasts in 2016 and 2017. Those podcasts will focus on news and opinions and will be produced with outside partners.

Modern Love was the first podcast that the New York Times launched with an outside partner (in this case, that partner was WBUR in Boston). The introduction episode of Modern Love was released in December of 2015, and the official first episode was released in January of 2016.

Modern Love is hosted by Meghna Chrakrabarti (WBUR) and New York Times Modern Love editor Daniel Jones. Together, they share some of the best stories about love today. The content of the show is based on the New York Times Style section column (which is called “Modern Love”).

Neiman Lab reports that the creation of new podcasts was mentioned in a New York Times memo. It indicates that the company will “use those shows as a platform from which we can build audience for shows produced within The Times that are as integral to our coverage as our live events and visual journalism efforts.”

In other words, the main reason why the New York Times wants to launch some podcasts is in the hopes that the shows will pull in revenue and attract listeners at a broad scale. The New York Times already has three in-house produced podcasts that are not revenue-driven. Those shows are: Inside The Times, Inside the New York Times Book Review Podcast, (which is celebrating its 10th anniversary) and Music Popcast.

The New York Times has already started putting together an audio team. They include:

* Samantha Henig – will be editorial director of the new audio unit

* Kelly Alfieri – will be executive director of special editorial projects

* Diantha Parker – will be an editor and senior audio producer

* Catrin Einhorn – will be an audio producer

* Adam Davidson – will be an adviser. (He is the co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money and co-host of Gimlet’s Surprisingly Awesome.)

The New York Times is currently seeking an executive producer who will craft the creative vision of the audio team.