Sad News: The New York Times' Front Page Podcast Is No More

This article is from the archive of our partner .

For years It's been a regular on the iTunes main page but Friday will be the final broadcast of The New York Times Front Page podcast, the newspaper has confirmed. For those used to waking up to the vocal-fried voice of James Barron, with his sober reading of the morning's paper and routine inclusion of classical music stories, it's a sad day indeed.

"I've been thinking of things that come in threes like Bach, Beethoven and Brahms," said Barron at the end of today's episode. "For us it was three more Front Page podcasts to go. The Times is discontinuing this program at the end of the week."

The decision comes four months after The Times decided to cancel a whole slew of its podcasts in December. At the time, it said it would keep the Front Page podcast along with the Book Review and Science Times. According to Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy, those two podcasts remain safe for now. "We are constantly evaluating our products and have decided to redirect some investments away from certain podcasts, which had a limited following and toward other digital projects," she tells The Atlantic Wire. "The podcasts associated with our Science section and the Book Review will continue." As of now, the Front Page podcast is still promoted on iTunes' main podcast page and maintains its much-deserved four-star customer rating.