That app started so good with no publicity, the deal was you pay for the article and you don’t have to deal with add. Well the add are getting bigger and bigger and scrolling down you cant barely have a full screen of only article without having bit of add at the top or bottom of your screen. If it wasn’t that my subscription had a cheap deal I would cancel. If you gonna put that many add maybe charge 2$ monthly.

This publication recently automatically renewed a subscription for far, far more than it cost when I first signed up to it. I understand, of course, that this cynical, manipulative profiteering tactic isn’t illegal. It was my fault, ultimately, for assuming the Athletic was a serious journalistic endeavour.A paywalled media outlet that believed in the value of its own content wouldn’t refuse to refund somebody the very same day they inadvertently allowed their subscription to “renew” (which here means “become far more expensive”) itself for a whole year.A journalistic source that believed its content is worth reading would court an audience who actually want to read it.If the Athletic’s response to this is “we have a policy against all refunds”, what that actually means is “if we allow refunds, everybody who has actually read our content will cancel their subscriptions within 24 hours”.Again: a journalistic source that believed its content is worth reading would court an audience who actually want to read it.A company’s refusal to refund purchases made entirely by accident, at no material cost to itself, the same day they were accidentally made, says a lot about the quality of its products.For as long as the Athletic refuses to return my money, I will still have access to its coverage — but I will never, ever read it again.Why? Because the Athletic itself knows its lazy, formulaic fanzine journalism isn’t worth the asking price — and they don’t care.

Love The Athletic but when I tap on suggested stories at the bottom of an article it launches an external browser which tells me I have to subscribe, rather than keeping me within the Athletic app where I’m subscribed and can read Athletic articles. This leads to a curious situation where I’ll see a piece I want to read at the bottom of the piece I just finished and instead of tapping it I have to go to the search function to get the app to actually open it up. I know my app is out of date because I’m on an older OS but this is pretty frustrating for a subscriber