Contact NYT Audio Support

The NY Times recently folded Audm (which it owns) into its own audio app. That was unfortunate because Audm offered far more content and was easier to use. The number of publications dropped from 27 at Audm (of which 6 were NYT content) to 12 at NYT Audio (where 3 are NYT content). Publications that were dropped include The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, New Republic, NY Review of Books, New Yorker and Vanity Fair, among many others. That serious erodes the value of what had been the internet’s best audio magazine app. Presumably those publications would not agree to provide their content under the NY Times banner. Specific gripes: The list of publications does not indicate which ones are already being followed, without clicking on each. The database of articles appears on two tabs (Today and Discover), whereas they could be combined into one simplified tab. The queue of articles cannot be sorted (e.g., oldest date first). Articles in the queue can be deleted with a simple swipe, except for the one you are listening to. Most maddeningly, it will not stop at the end of an article, but continues onto the next one. The app developers might rethink what was lost in the transition. The idea of listening to magazine articles is terrific, and I will use the NYT’s audio app, but now need to search elsewhere to find the publications that no longer participate—which defeats the concept of a single audio magazine app.

I’ve been a devout subscriber to Audm for years. Being able to listen to a diversity of publishers in the car has been a great pleasure. And seeing the continuous improvement of the user interface really made me love the app. With the Audm app being phased out and moved to the NYT app, I got onto the NYT app for the first time. Immediately I was disappointed to see their lack of available articles. Somehow a Vanity Fair article I was midway through listening to on Audm is not available on the NYT app. While I was excited at first to see the other content that was being provided, the reality is it mostly distracts from the articles that I had originally subscribed to hear. All the podcast and curated topics just make the articles hard to find. For now I’ll be unsubscribing and hoping an app will come that can provide the service I loved on Audm.

Audm is by far the app I use the most. I love being able to listen to articles from the New Yorker, NYRB, the Atlantic, The Atavistic, London Review of Books, Texas Monthly, The Times Literary Supplement and so many others on my daily walks and when I drive. None of these are listed as publishing partners in the new app. Instead the app is pushing all sorts of podcasts I have no interest in. I can get The NY Times podcasts I want on the Apple app, namely The Daily, occasionally Ezra Klein, Matter of Opinion and The Run Up. But Audm is where I do my non-music listening and without being able to hear articles from publications some of which I don’t subscribe to will be a real loss. What was the point of the NYT buying a truly great app in order to destroy it? As an NYT print subscriber I get the new app free but if all of that Audm content doesn’t transfer I will cancel my subscription and listen to my usual NYT apps as I always have on Apple’s podcast app. Serial and The Athletic are a disincentive to using the new app as far as I am concerned, just so much clutter. I will also be losing valuable reading time, since I will now have to read all of The New Yorker instead of being able to choose on Mondays which articles to read and which to listen to.