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The desperation of NYTimes

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Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#161

Post by ciwchris »

I had the same experience and feeling.

I've also experienced this elsewhere. TIAA was essentially sending me marketing emails I couldn't unsubscribe from. My financial manager with sympathetic and communicated my frustration to the business, but I don't believe it lead to any changes. As a result I have marked my emails from TIAA as spam, which now means email is not a reliable source of information from them, and so I unsubscribed from all email communication and instead receive paper mail. Sad.

I can name others using this pattern. Very frustrating. It's a lot of work to sever these relationships. I guess they know this and so think they can get away with it.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#162

Post by chasd00 »

xeeeeeeeeeeenu wrote: post #143
epistasis wrote: post #3

NYTimes is predatory on subscriptions. Over my long lifetime I've subscribed twice, and regretted it both times with intensity. Any place that allows easy instantaneous subscription by a simple web form, but makes you call and talk to a person during limited business hours for cancellation , is a toxic place. I've been told they have stopped this predatory practice due to some newly passed laws or something, but they…

That's why it's best not to give companies your credit card number. If you subscribe through PayPal, you can cancel through PayPal.

you can do a merchant block on your CC then it doesn't matter what they claim, no more payments issued to that merchant (NYT in these examples).

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#164

Post by balozi »

ilamont wrote: post #27

If you think that's bad, 5 years ago you had to call someone on the phone to cancel NYT subscriptions (the boiler room retention script always gave you an option to extend at the cheaper rate, but it was a pain to have to go through the motions). IIRC new consumer laws at the state or local level ended that practice. I'm still paying the NYT intro rate ($4 a month billed annually) and on day 364 go to the account pag…

I gave up on and unsubscribed from the Times about 20+ years ago. Even back then the unsubscribe process was painful. I guess nothing has changed.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#165

Post by bandofthehawk »

epistasis wrote: post #108
mikestew wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any place that allows easy instantaneous subscription by a simple web form, but makes you call and talk to a person during limited business hours That hasn't been true for, what, almost ten years? When I cancelled three months ago, it was about three or four clicks through the beg screens, and done. No, I don't live in CA.

I live in California, cancelled about five years ago, and they forced me to talk to a person who demanded a reason for my cancellation, and then argued with me about wanting to cancel. Do not subscribe to the NYTimes. Use your library card, if one must read it, and unfortunately as the undeserved "paper of record" one must often read it to be kept aware of what others are being fed. There's no baby here to throw out…

> their Ukraine coverage is basically Russia-lite, and extremely anti-Ukrainian

This is very surprising to me, I thought they were kind of pro Ukraine biased.

I asked an AI and it came back with this:

> The New York Times' coverage of the war is overwhelmingly pro-Ukraine in its framing, tone, and attribution of responsibility, though critics argue this manifests as omission of context regarding NATO expansion and US intelligence involvement rather than direct support for Russia.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#166

Post by whack »

> I earn a small fraction of what NYTimes earns. If I'm not desperate, why are they?

With all due respect, you are not responsible for covering every single thing the Trump administration is doing and ensuring they are held accountable. While simultaneously satisfying customers who are used to getting endless content for free, and sniff their noses at paying $2/month.

The journalism business is a hard business. I may not agree with everything NYT does, they are most certainly not perfect, but they are operating in good faith and trying their best. Give them a break

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#167

Post by senderista »

epistasis wrote: post #108
mikestew wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any place that allows easy instantaneous subscription by a simple web form, but makes you call and talk to a person during limited business hours That hasn't been true for, what, almost ten years? When I cancelled three months ago, it was about three or four clicks through the beg screens, and done. No, I don't live in CA.

I live in California, cancelled about five years ago, and they forced me to talk to a person who demanded a reason for my cancellation, and then argued with me about wanting to cancel. Do not subscribe to the NYTimes. Use your library card, if one must read it, and unfortunately as the undeserved "paper of record" one must often read it to be kept aware of what others are being fed. There's no baby here to throw out…

I bet if you read actual Ukrainian Telegram channels that openly discuss military setbacks and government corruption you would conclude they are "anti-Ukrainian".

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#168

Post by TheJoeMan »

I have something similar from AT&T about my fiber internet, they kept sending me "transactional emails" with the last 3/4 of the message body being marketing copy for their phone service etc. I submitted a complaint at the FCC (consumercomplaints.fcc.gov) and got a very fast followup from the "Office of the President of AT&T" putting me on an internal do-not-solicit list and the emails have generally gone away. They even had to write a case resolution letter to the FCC. This "loophole" in the CAN-SPAM seems to be spreading across different industries not just the NYT.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#170

Post by cwillu »

darepublic wrote: post #16
epistasis wrote: post #3

NYTimes is predatory on subscriptions. Over my long lifetime I've subscribed twice, and regretted it both times with intensity. Any place that allows easy instantaneous subscription by a simple web form, but makes you call and talk to a person during limited business hours for cancellation , is a toxic place. I've been told they have stopped this predatory practice due to some newly passed laws or something, but they…

lets not throw out the baby with the bathwater

The NYT is not a baby. At _best_ they're a pail of dirt that occasionally has some flecks of gold mixed in with the mud.
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