Loyal readers of Longform, the nonfiction podcast and website dedicated to curating and recommending nonfiction articles, learned Wednesday that the article-recommendation component is no longer. This was the message posted on its website:

Readers,

Longform.org is shutting down its article recommendations service. (The Longform Podcast will continue to publish new episodes weekly.)

We started the site in April 2010 on a whim. Since then, we have recommended more than 10,000 pieces of nonfiction. It has been immensely gratifying to watch millions of readers enjoying the work of our favorite writers.

Thank you to Longform.org’s contributing editors, its supporters, and the publications, writers, and readers who made it all possible. We will miss you.

— Max Linsky & Aaron Lammer, founders

A similar note was also pinned to its Twitter profile:

Longform is shutting down its article recommendations service. (The Longform Podcast will continue to publish new episodes weekly.)

Thank you to our contributing editors, our supporters, and the publications, writers, and readers who made it all possible. We will miss you.

— Longform (@longform) January 5, 2022

Almost immediately, the outpouring of love began — from distraught readers, writers hoping to one day be featured on the website, and everyone in between:

my dream of writing a longform pick crushed! https://t.co/BRZidI9pnh

— bettina (@bettinamak) January 5, 2022

farewell to a site that helped a lot of unknown writers find new audiences and take the first real steps in their careers, even degenerate gamblers who wrote mostly about poker and basketball. Wonderful site; great people behind it. https://t.co/i2rFr9jSch

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) January 5, 2022

https://twitter.com/francescamari/status/1478751899297927172

And as the original message and tweet indicated, Longform still plans to produce its popular podcast, which became a part of the Vox Media Podcast Network in August 2021. As we reported back then, the co-founders of Longform, Aaron Lammer and Max Linsky, stayed on as producers of the podcast, but sales, marketing and distribution of the podcast became the responsibility of Vox.

Linsky and Lammer didn’t say much to elaborate on today’s news. Linsky tweeted:

This project lasted so much longer than I ever expected. It also changed my life. Thank you to every single reader, editor, and writer who made Longform possible. A great run. https://t.co/KsE0u4mva8

— max linsky (@maxlinsky) January 5, 2022

Lammer, on the other hand, offered a teeny bit more insight, telling one reader that there were reasons like paywalls that influenced the decision to shutter:

We've had a bunch of contributors from Pitt over recent years!

But there are non-economic reasons that it has become difficult (read: paywalls)

— Lammer (@aaronlammer) January 5, 2022

When asked for further comment, Lammer said, “I think we’ll just let the letter speak for itself. We’ve always tried to highlight the writers, and I don’t think it really makes sense to make the shutdown about us.”

In any case, fans of Longform can take heart knowing that the archive, at least, will live on.

oh btw – the @Longform archive will stay up and its a lifetime of reading (until the links all decay… look entropy is the nature of the universe)

— Lammer (@aaronlammer) January 5, 2022