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The desperation of NYTimes

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Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#81

Post by laweijfmvo »

I'm currently in a battle with LinkedIn's "invitation" e-mail spam (I don't have a LinkedIn account). Someone (probably unintentionally) shared or allowed my e-mail to get imported to LinkedIn and periodically send me "invites" to join.

There's an unsubscribe link, but it directs me to login to my account to manage my e-mail preferences -- I don't have an account. They have a separate, hard to find, "remove me from your invitations" form, but they seem to ignore that. I finally sent a CCPA request (very hard to find the link), which went unacknowledged, but the e-mails seemed to stop until recently, when they started again.

The kicker is that they think I'm someone else (a relative), so it's all completely ridiculous.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#82

Post by WarmWash »

They are desperate, all of media is desperate.

People want news online, and they do not want to see ads, they do not want to pay a subscription.

So if you are media company and want to stay afloat, you need to appeal to the people who are either willing (or don't know otherwise) to load ads or willing to pay a subscription. In both cases, it's in large part people on the fringe. Not your average person.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#83

Post by havaloc »

dangus wrote: post #48

Not sure what the author is bitching about. They’re a one-time series of email messages over 14 days. They are transactional emails. Maybe the author doesn’t agree with that but they’re welcome to take NYT to court over it. Is their email provider charging you per email or something?

And you should have the right to stop them immediately. I don't see how that's controversial.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#84

Post by wnolens »

I subscribed 2 years ago and it took over 2 weeks to actually get my first paper at my door. I live in NYC..

Cancellation wasn't difficult though, and didn't require me to call anyone.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#85

Post by artursapek »

dieselgate wrote: post #10
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…

I respect your opinion but am grateful for and find tremendous value in my NYT subscription. I share it with my SO and read their articles constantly. Prior to getting a subscription I was a "turn js off" kind of person - which is fine I suppose and still do it for other sites. I do not maintain any streaming or other subscriptions outside of Deezer (and a Garmin GPS FWIW). I would like a Bloomberg subscription but t…

You’re not responding to anything the parent said.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#86

Post by dieselgate »

dominotw wrote: post #32
dieselgate wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I respect your opinion but am grateful for and find tremendous value in my NYT subscription. I share it with my SO and read their articles constantly. Prior to getting a subscription I was a "turn js off" kind of person - which is fine I suppose and still do it for other sites. I do not maintain any streaming or other subscriptions outside of Deezer (and a Garmin GPS FWIW). I would like a Bloomberg subscription but t…

gp's comment had nothing to do with value of the publication. are you implying it ok for them to do that because value? And making it hard to cancel is not just "marketing" . There are even laws to prevent that sort of thing.

No, I am not implying it is OK for them to do that because I read their paper.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#87

Post by jsbisviewtiful »

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…

> I urge everyone reading to unsubscribe instantaneously from the NYTimes for their business practices.

If people stopped buying from unethical businesses it would be practically impossible to function in the modern day. Not only is it extremely difficult to know what businesses are “ethical”, but it’s becoming increasingly easy to assume no business is truly ethical. e.g. Environmentally friendly clothing brand Everlane just sold to SHEIN of all places.

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#88

Post by zippothrowaway »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #34
dieselgate wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for that! I have been on Levine's website recently and for some reason thought they may deviate in content or something. But will try it out. It's a daily newsletter which is kind of high volume for me (which is why I hadn't subscribed prior) but will check it out. I actually may have been sub'd previously and had to check out because the push-model was slightly too much; would kind of prefer a pull model.

If you prefer pull, subscribe to it with https://www.kill-the-newsletter.com/ (I subscribe to Bloomberg, and send their emails to feeds which end up in a https://karakeep.app/ instance for consumption)

Great idea and just a note to anyone doing this (as I just did) - Bloomberg will send a confirmation code to the email which you have to get out of the feed. Took a few minutes, but it worked!

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#89

Post by kg »

devindotcom wrote: post #15

It's not just them. Yeah, this is bad, but I get tons of unsolicited messages from any company I establish a basic relationship with. Every interaction I have with a store or site signs me up for some promotional thing, which I unsubscribe from immediately, only to find it's one of 4 different lists I was added to. Then 6 months later I receive some stupid new thing as they try to drum up engagement. One that particu…

An appliance repair company I used exactly once maybe 5 or 6 years ago recently started spamming me with texts and emails trying to get me to refer friends to use them or use them again. Never hit the "report spam" button faster.

I'd kinda understand it if they had sent me a polite text or email shortly after our initial engagement saying "hey, if you had a good experience please review us/recommend us" but coming in literal years late with a blast of multiple messages screams "we hired some sort of marketing firm and fed them our customer database".

Re: The desperation of NYTimes

#90

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

filoleg wrote: post #24
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…

Agreed, I made the same mistake once by subbing on their website. Dealing with the eventual cancelation was an absolute pain. Years later, I wanted to sub again, and this time I did it through the iOS app. Best decision ever, as now it just sits alongside my other App Store subscriptions and is easily cancelable in a single click.

Assuming they are both the same price this also speaks directly to NTY: people will give Apple a 30% cut just to not deal with their shitty practices.
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