''Up First'' is a daily news

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

by the American media organization

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, which releases an episode every weekday at 6 a.m. ET, and Saturdays and Sundays by 8 a.m ET. ''Up First'' gives a brief overview of each news item in its weekday and Saturday episodes, unlike some of NPR's other popular news podcasts which provide a deep exploration of each story. The Sunday edition of the podcast varies between originally produced content for the feed and showcasing previously published episodes for NPR's various

long-form journalism Long-form journalism is a branch of journalism dedicated to longer articles with larger amounts of content. Typically, this will be between 1,000 and 20,000 words. Long-form articles often take the form of creative nonfiction or narrative journa ...

podcasts. The podcast was launched on April 5, 2017 in order to showcase the most prominent stories of the day in a digestible format, and giving hosts the opportunity to discuss current news items with experts. The podcast's weekday edition is hosted by ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ...

'' hosts Rachel Martin, A Martínez, Steve Inskeep, and

Leila Fadel Leila Fadel (born 1981) is a Lebanese American journalist and the cohost of National Public Radio's ''Morning Edition,'' a role she assumed in 2022. She was previously the network's Cairo bureau chief. Fadel has chiefly worked in the Middle Eas ...

. The podcast expanded to a Saturday edition on November 9, 2019, and is hosted by ''

Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...

'' Saturday host

Scott Simon Scott Simon (born March 16, 1952) is an American journalist and the host of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' on NPR. Early life Simon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of comedian Ernie Simon and actress Patricia Lyons. ...

alongside ''Weekend Edition'' Sunday host

Ayesha Rascoe Ayesha Rascoe (born June 10, 1986) is an American journalist named host of Weekend Edition Sunday in February 2022. She previously served as the White House reporter for NPR. Rascoe covered the Obama White House for Reuters before moving to NPR in ...

. Beginning on January 9, 2022, the podcast expanded to a Sunday edition hosted by Rachel Martin, offering extended content in each episode to provide context behind current headlines.

Format

When ''Up First'' launched, it was intended to be a spin off of the popular NPR show ''Morning Edition,'' a morning news show that runs for several hours each weekday on NPR. For many people, ''Morning Edition'' was inaccessible due to its length or the time in which it aired. For this reason, ''Up First'' was introduced to cater to the "more than three-fourths of NPR podcast listeners hosay they are “definitely” interested in short, daily audio news updates." ''Up First'' was NPR's solution to delivering the most broad overview of the show for the day, as many fans of ''Morning Edition'' didn't have the hours to dedicate to listening to the long show. After ''Morning Edition'' first goes live at 5 am ET, NPR takes its first 10 minutes or so with its hosts, and edits that into the show that many know best as ''Up First''. When the ''Morning Edition'' broadcast picks up again at 7 am ET, the first ten minutes of the broadcast are replaced with something new to keep the information fresh and not repetitive.

Competition with ''The Daily''

Though ''Up First'' is often compared to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

daily news podcast '' The Daily,'' the two podcasts have differences in how they are formatted. ''The Daily,'' a 20-25 minute podcast, favors an in-depth look at a single story. Meanwhile, NPR's ''Up First'' clocks in closer to 15 minutes each day trying to make the day's biggest news stories as accessible and digestible as possible, typically over three to four segments in each episode. That being said, polls and critics have been shown to favor ''The Daily'' over ''Up First.'' ''Up First'' is available to listen to on the NPR website,

NPR One National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, and anywhere else NPR podcasts are posted.

References

NPR programs Audio podcasts {{Podcasting 2017 podcast debuts News podcasts

Format

Competition with ''The Daily''

See also

References