[micromacrofoot]

Most media outlets these days are just a pile of dark patterns.

My local newspaper charges $1/4-weeks for N months, then rockets to $30/4-weeks after (and it still has ads and an absurd number of trackers!). There are 13 4-week spans in a year, rather than the usual 12 months everyone else prices on.

If you try to cancel online they give you repeat offers to temporarily lower the price back to $4/mo (until recently you couldn't cancel online at all).

If they just charged $5/mo forever and removed ads for it, I'd probably subscribe perpetually... but instead I don't even bother with their nonsense and use a combination of archive.is and reader mode to steal it. I can get 1/3 of their content online free anyway from AP News directly.

[toader]

Do you think they have to raise their subscription prices because many people are stealing the content?

[micromacrofoot]

If they thought that they wouldn't be begging me to pay $4 instead of $30 whenever I try to cancel.

I wonder if they've ever attempted to calculate the cost of being incredibly unpleasant as a service.

[toader]

I don't have the context to comment on the interpersonal skills of the media outlet. If the price is $30 after the introductory price, then the price is $30. You disagreeing with the price or their sales tactic doesn't entitle you to steal their content.

[micromacrofoot]

I don't need to be entitled, I can just do it. Call the police, no one cares.

[toader]

Then just say you're a thief, no need to pretend there is any other issue than you are OK with stealing when you deem a companies practices to be disagreeable to your own.