Last weekend I called the New York Times to cancel my subscription. This was the same weekend in which I unfriended about 30 people from my Facebook page. I must have been going through a purge phase of some sort.
The woman on the phone informed me that I had been a Times subscriber for over 10 years and was curious about why I wanted to cancel. I informed her it was a financial issue. She offered to drop the rate by 50% for the next year and after mulling this over for a few seconds, I decided to take the offer. I wasn't 100% satisfied with my response because I had psyched myself up for this cancellation and then I felt weak and easily controlled.
As it turned out, that was the last day I would hold a print-edition of the Times in my hands. A paper hasn't been delivered since that day so apparently something happened and my 52-week trial rate never got implemented.
I am still adjusting to the new morning routine. Sometimes my bleary eyes just aren't quite ready for the glare of a monitor right off the bat. I sip my coffee at my desk instead of the kitchen table. I prowl the internet for news instead of turning pages. And I probably don't catch everything of interest to me. Sometimes it was a challenge to find an article on the Times' website which I'd read in the print edition so I do wonder what I might have missed.
What I don't miss is walking out to get the paper, especially if it's raining. I also don't miss bagging up all those papers for recycling and carrying those out to the street. And I will certainly not miss seeing that $52 monthly charge on my credit card.
Welcome to the digital era. Newspapers are dying. Trees are relieved at that news.
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