Re Bloomberg, they could increase retention by cutting the transaction costs of subscribing.
One reason I cancelled was I couldn’t buy annually, only monthly, and I couldn’t pay in euro. That not only put up actual costs - the bank took two fees every month for the forex transaction - it also put up the time I spent recording these transactions for the accountant. Instead of one transaction per year in euro I had to record 3x12 = 36: price + commission fee + exchange fee. I think that annoyed me even more than the fact that I was paying a lot for very few must-have articles.
The NYT seems to have already automated cancellation, for some subscribers at least. I live in Australia, just went to cancel my $6.25 a week subscription, there is now an option to do it online. First automated pushback was to ask if I wanted to downgrade (drop an add on), but when I pushed on I was offered a further year at 50c per week. Which I took.
Re Bloomberg, they could increase retention by cutting the transaction costs of subscribing.
One reason I cancelled was I couldn’t buy annually, only monthly, and I couldn’t pay in euro. That not only put up actual costs - the bank took two fees every month for the forex transaction - it also put up the time I spent recording these transactions for the accountant. Instead of one transaction per year in euro I had to record 3x12 = 36: price + commission fee + exchange fee. I think that annoyed me even more than the fact that I was paying a lot for very few must-have articles.
The NYT seems to have already automated cancellation, for some subscribers at least. I live in Australia, just went to cancel my $6.25 a week subscription, there is now an option to do it online. First automated pushback was to ask if I wanted to downgrade (drop an add on), but when I pushed on I was offered a further year at 50c per week. Which I took.