The Athletic kindly sent me a one-question survey today as follow-up to the response I quoted above. The question was whether I was satisfied with that response.
Yes, they wanted to know if I was satisfied with their denial of my request for a pro-rated refund with 11 months left of a subscription to a product they changed without warning.
I don’t even know where to begin.
I was on the phone with AOL trying to cancel service. The operator was trying to sell me on staying on with perks and free time. I told her, ‘It’s not you. It’s me.’
I don’t know when this change was officially made, I’m probably LTTP, but I received an email this morning that my NY Times subscription provides access to The Athletic. So I’m back to being a ‘subscriber’ of The Athletic!
And the Times just informed its sports folks that they are “integrating” coverage and reportage from the Athletic as a replacement for the Times newsroom sports department. It’s gone, apparently?
(They’ll still have a sports section, but they’ll use Athletic writers already under contract for it – and I guess maybe offer some of the remaining existing NYT sports department the chance to switch? The Times has really scaled back in-house sports coverage over the last few years as it is, relying on contract writers and wire services.)
