https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/11/the-end-of-click-to-subscribe-call-to-cancel-one-of-the-news-industrys-favorite-retention-tactics-is-illegal-ftc-says/ [foundation] Fellowships Reports Lab Storyboard Nieman Foundation at Harvard HOME About Fuego Subscribe Archives Foundation Reports Storyboard LATEST STORY Journalism school is broken and expensive. Jessica Huseman will teach you for cheap(er). Business Models Mobile & Apps Audience & Social Aggregation & Discovery Reporting & Production [lab-logo-c] ABOUT [ ] [Search] SUBSCRIBE MENU * Business Models * Mobile & Apps * Audience & Social * Aggregation & Discovery * Reporting & Production * Translations * Fuego Nov. 15, 2021, 10:52 a.m. [alexander-andrews-JYGnB9gTCls-unsplash] The end of "click to subscribe, call to cancel"? One of the news industry's favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says Most U.S. news organizations won't let readers cancel online. The Federal Trade Commission wants that to change. By Sarah Scire @SarahScire Nov. 15, 2021, 10:52 a.m. Nov. 15, 2021, 10:52 a.m. Discovering they had to get on the phone to cancel a subscription they signed up for online rankled several respondents in our survey looking at why people canceled their news subscriptions. The reaction to the call-to-cancel policy ranged from "an annoyance" and "ridiculous" to "shady" and "oppressive." [cancelled-split-flap-315x177] RELATED ARTICLE Cancel culture: Why do people cancel news subscriptions? We asked, they answered. Nieman Lab Staff October 28, 2021 Publishers tend to think of this as "retention." A study of 526 news organizations in the United States found that only 41% make it easy for people to cancel subscriptions online, and more than half trained customer service reps in tactics to dissuade customers who call to unsubscribe. The Federal Trade Commission, meanwhile, recently made it clear that it sees the practice as 1) one of several "dark patterns that trick or trap consumers into subscriptions" and 2) straight-up illegal. The FTC vowed to ramp up enforcement on companies that fail to provide an "easy and simple" cancellation process, including an option that's "at least as easy" as the one to subscribe. 2. To comply with the law, businesses must ensure sign-ups are clear, consensual, and easy to cancel. Specifically, businesses should provide cancellation mechanisms that are at least as easy to use as the method the customer used to buy the product or service in the first place. -- Lina Khan (@linakhanFTC) October 29, 2021 Translation? If you can subscribe online, you should be able to cancel your subscription online. (California was ahead of the curve on this one; the state has required news sites and other businesses allow people to cancel online since 2018.) Scroll through those picking up on the FTC announcement and you'll see a few repeat offenders -- cancelling a Planet Fitness membership appears to be a Sisyphean task -- and news organizations are among the ones catching the most flak. The new guidelines around "negative option marketing" -- which includes everything from automatic renewals to free trials that convert to paid subscriptions if consumers take no action -- go beyond mandating that companies offer straightforward cancellation. Companies, including news companies, must make "clear and conspicuous" disclosures, including "each deadline by which the consumer must act in order to stop the charges," "the amount (or range of costs) the consumer will be charged or billed," and "all information necessary to cancel the contract." And customer service reps will have to keep new guidelines in mind: "In implementing effective cancellation procedures, marketers should not, among other things: hang up on consumers who call to cancel; place them on hold for an unreasonably long time; provide false information about how to cancel; or misrepresent the reasons for delays in processing consumers' cancellation requests." (You can read the full enforcement policy statement from the FTC here.) [quino-al-8gWEAAXJjtI-unsplash-315x177] RELATED ARTICLE Most U.S. news organizations still won't let most readers cancel their subscriptions online Laura Hazard Owen March 22, 2021 Looking around, it seems some publishers think -- and hope -- subscribers simply won't notice if their subscription price gets hiked. In his look at the newspaper-owning hedge fund Alden Global Capitol, McKay Coppins notes that their approach has been fairly simple: "Gut the staff, sell the real estate, jack up subscription prices, and wring as much cash as possible out of the enterprise until eventually enough readers cancel their subscriptions that the paper folds, or is reduced to a desiccated husk of its former self." But it's not just hedge fund-owned publishers that have adopted the subscription practices that have caught the government's attention. Again, most U.S. news organizations don't give readers an easy way to cancel online. When I checked -- more than a week after the FTC announced it planned to crack down on companies who don't make it easy to cancel -- The New York Times still requires me to talk to someone to unsubscribe, either by starting a live chat or by picking up the phone. (Update: The New York Times says digital news-only subscribers can now cancel via their "Account" page. If you receive a print edition or subscribe to the news product and Cooking or Games or Wirecutter, the live chat or phone call remain your only options right now.) Photo by Alexander Andrews used under a Creative Commons license. POSTED Nov. 15, 2021, 10:52 a.m. SHARE THIS STORY TWITTER FACEBOOK EMAIL TUMBLR LINKEDIN SHARE ON FACEBOOK TWEET auto-renewal cancel cancellations customer service Federal Trade Commission FTC Show comments Hide comments Show tagsHide tags What's the best way to follow how the news is changing? Our daily email, with all the freshest future-of-journalism news. [ ] [Subscribe] Prefer a once-a-week email? >> Cite this articleHide citations CLOSE MLA Scire, Sarah. "The end of "click to subscribe, call to cancel"? One of the news industry's favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 15 Nov. 2021. Web. 17 Nov. 2021. APA Scire, S. (2021, Nov. 15). The end of "click to subscribe, call to cancel"? One of the news industry's favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/11/ the-end-of-click-to-subscribe-call-to-cancel-one-of-the-news-industrys-favorite-retention-tactics-is-illegal-ftc-says / Chicago Scire, Sarah. "The end of "click to subscribe, call to cancel"? One of the news industry's favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified November 15, 2021. Accessed November 17, 2021. https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/11/ the-end-of-click-to-subscribe-call-to-cancel-one-of-the-news-industrys-favorite-retention-tactics-is-illegal-ftc-says /. Wikipedia {{cite web | url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/11/ the-end-of-click-to-subscribe-call-to-cancel-one-of-the-news-industrys-favorite-retention-tactics-is-illegal-ftc-says / | title = The end of "click to subscribe, call to cancel"? One of the news industry's favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says | last = Scire | first = Sarah | work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]] | date = 15 November 2021 | accessdate = 17 November 2021 | ref = {{harvid|Scire|2021}} }} The latest from Nieman Lab Journalism school is broken and expensive. Jessica Huseman will teach you for cheap(er). Hanaa' Tameez Personality type, as well as politics, predicts who shares fake news Asher Lawson About a third of news organizations have already adopted a remote or hybrid working model Sarah Scire Journalism internships are an education -- in precarious work Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis How do you fix an "information disorder"? The Aspen Institute has some ideas Joshua Benton Join the 60,000 who get the freshest future-of-journalism news in our daily email. [ ] [Subscribe] Journalism school is broken and expensive. Jessica Huseman will teach you for cheap(er). "If I was queen for a day, what I would honestly do is fire every journalism professor and hire adjuncts working in the field. That's, like, my dream." Personality type, as well as politics, predicts who shares fake news Highly impulsive people who lean conservative are more likely to share false news stories. They have a desire to create chaos and won't be deterred by fact-checkers. About a third of news organizations have already adopted a remote or hybrid working model Just 9% of newsrooms plan to reject remote work and return to their pre-pandemic setup. Hanaa' Tameez Journalism school is broken and expensive. Jessica Huseman will teach you for cheap(er). "If I was queen for a day, what I would honestly do is fire every journalism professor and hire adjuncts working in the field. That's, like, my dream." Asher Lawson and Hemant Kakkar Personality type, as well as politics, predicts who shares fake news Highly impulsive people who lean conservative are more likely to share false news stories. They have a desire to create chaos and won't be deterred by fact-checkers. Sarah Scire About a third of news organizations have already adopted a remote or hybrid working model Just 9% of newsrooms plan to reject remote work and return to their pre-pandemic setup. [lab-logo-c] * Subscribe * Twitter * Facebook * RSS * * About * Contact * Archives * Encyclo * Fuego Help advance the Nieman Foundation's mission "to promote and elevate the standards of journalism" by making a donation. [foundation] To promote and elevate the standards of journalism [reports-lo] Covering thought leadership in journalism [lab-logo-c] Pushing to the future of journalism [storyboard] Exploring the art and craft of story (c) 2021 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College / Some rights reserved Harvard Trademark Privacy Digital Accessibility Walter Lippmann House One Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 2237 The Nieman Journalism Lab is a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age. It's a project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Follow us * Subscribe to our email * Follow us on Twitter * Like us on Facebook * Download our iPhone app * Subscribe via RSS Subscribe to our work - The basics * About us * Contact * Archives Projects * Encyclo * Fuego * Tweet archive About us - Director Joshua Benton Staff writers Justin Ellis Caroline O'Donovan (c) President and Fellows of Harvard College, unless otherwise noted. Some rights reserved. Quantcast