*When quitting is the only option
I did cancel my New York Times subscription. It is not because I do not like the New York Times, in fact I think it is an excellent newspaper. They hold up journalistic standards and integrity especially in these days where they provide a very important voice in a less and less democratic society.
So why would I cancel my subscription?
I read my news almost exclusively online. This is most likely where all news will go to, and fighting that process does not make much sense. But I think it is very important that the online access includes an openly accessible way which is not tied to some proprietary platform. So I do read my news in my browser.
The publishing outlet of the New York Times however thinks they should make my experience less enjoyable. They push a note in front of almost every article I am trying to read, to encourage the use of the New York Times App. There are multiple problems with this notification. Mainly because it blocks the article almost completely. I am forced do to interrupt my reading to actively dismiss the notification. And this process is also purposefully designed to divert you to the app store to download their app. Even if you are successfully dismiss the notification it will pop up when you open the next article and you are faced with this notification over and over again, always interrupting my reading. This is extremely annoying.
To resolve this issue I called the customer support of the New York Times. And a very helpful representative told me that I would have to clear my browser cache and the message would disappear for good. It did! And for a while I would read the New York Times as a happy subscriber. But this did not last for very long and the messages were back.
This is when I canceled my subscription. This also immediately solved the problem. I still had access to the New York Times until the end of the month. But now I would just get offer to resubscribe and fortunately this message does not cover the article so my reading was not interrupted. It also shows that the New York Times very well knows every detail about me. While the only thing which really matters is if I have an active subscription. And what it all comes down to who is allowed to make what decision and treating each other in a way that respects this.
And because the New York Times leaves only decision to me and that is if I want to be their subscriber or not. My other decision they do not respect. So canceling was my only decision left to me. Regretfully I canceled.