Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, hosts of the New York Times technology podcast “Hard Fork,” have signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) for representation as they prepare to leave the Times and launch an independent media venture.

As Variety reports, the signing follows Roose’s announcement last week that he would depart his Times columnist role in August after nine years. Newton, who also runs the independent newsletter Platformer, will join him in forming a new media company that includes a show focused on artificial intelligence.

“I can’t give too many details yet (there are still some domain names we need to grab, and self-indulgent manifestos we need to write), but suffice it to say that our goal is to take the thing that makes Hard Fork work and extend it into new formats and directions,” Roose wrote on X.

“Hard Fork” launched in 2022 as a podcast covering the technology industry before shifting its focus to AI alongside the sector’s expansion. Roose and Newton have interviewed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The podcast ends in August.

Beyond the new venture, Roose is working on a book titled “The AGI Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence.” Newton’s Platformer newsletter, which moved from Substack to the publishing platform Ghost in 2024, counts 215,000 subscribers.

The signing extends a period of creator activity at UTA. The agency recently signed outdoor lifestyle creator Steven Rinella and his media company MeatEater for representation across multiple formats, and beauty and lifestyle creator Golloria George for global representation.

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