MSNBC Recruits Crooked’s Madeleine Haeringer To Oversee Audio Amid Podcast Growth Surge.

MSNBC, home to podcasts like Rachel Maddow’s Ultra, Why Is This Happening? with Chris Hayes and Trumpland with Alex Wagner, has hired Crooked Media executive Madeleine Haeringer to lead the effort. She has joined the left-leaning network as Senior VP of Digital, Audio and Longform. 

It is a return to MSNBC for Haeringer, who jumped to Crooked Media two years ago when she was hired as Executive VP and General Manager of News Programming for the company that is home to Pod Save America and other left-leaning shows. She focused on bringing coverage of breaking news headlines into Crooked’s podcasts and helped with the expansion of Crooked’s portfolio into video, live events and newsletters.

During her previous 22-year run at NBC News, Haeringer served as Senior VP of Editorial, where she was responsible for guiding the editorial agenda across the entire news division. She also led NBC’s audio business.

MSNBC is in hiring mode as it splits from NBC News. It reportedly plans to hire as many as 100 people as it creates its own newsroom.

In March, MSNBC’s audio portfolio had more than 12 million downloads across MSNBC showcasts and MSNBC Originals, including the newly launched series Trumpland with Alex Wagner and The Blueprint with Jen Psaki, making it the strongest month since October 2024 and the third consecutive month of month-over-month growth.

The first quarter of 2025 is also up vs. the prior quarter, driven by MSNBC Audio showcasts — which had 9.5 million monthly downloads, up 5% vs. the fourth quarter monthly average. MSNBC’s top-performing Audio showcasts in Q1 2025 include “The Rachel Maddow Show” with nearly four million average monthly downloads, up 100% vs. the prior quarter and prior year, and “Morning Joe,” with 1.2 million average monthly downloads. The past two years, “Morning Joe” was the most listened to showcast across MSNBC.