The Economist Reviews 6

The Economist is by far the most rational, balanced and independent provider of global news. I subscribed to the magazine for many years, and now listen to their podcasts instead. Nothing is dumbed-down, including the brilliant Babbage science feed. Their political analysis is not infallible, of course, but make up your own mind. Note that their paid for podcasts do not fully support all Android players (or vice versa).

Many reviews advising that that cancellation process is ridiculous/tortuous. However, i encountered the inverse effect.

Tried to subscribe (several times), have an email address already registered with them from years ago but can't remember the password so followed directions for a password reset- to date I've not received a reset email (not in spam either before they ask).

Impulse purchase missed, I'll stick with The Times

To cancel subscription you need to go through a live chat - WHAT? Not possible to just click "cancel subscription".

Did not expect this from a magazine (online in this case) like the Economist. Unacceptable.

The Economist has gradually reduced its usefulness to me, and become more intrusive, and now wants to extort more money for this privelige. Intrusive in that if I keep deleting the email newsfeeds they send me they ask do I still want them, well err yes, or why did I opt in and this is very Orwellkian, checking my online activity. Now I just click on one item randomly then log off again. The sub for a print + online for 3 years is now £762, around £5 per issue. Or you can opt for autorenew and get a massive 20% off, but yes I have read the posts here about that. And yes, just tried to contact a human in the UK about a discount, I have been a loyal subscriber for over 20 years now, all you get is bots or somebody in The Philippines, India, wherever, milking you for details like name, address, why can't they just give you a price first, I gave them my subscriber number), then after all that, long time wasted online, they just give you the price they quoted first, no chance of negotiating lower. They are now somewhat to the Left of Trotsky, very anti-Trump ( I want neutral news coverage, not the Socialist Worker or Pravda, thanks). And last but most important to me, the back inside page once had useful country by country coverage of data ;like industrial production, wages, 3 month and 10 uyear interst rates, this coverage has gradually been downgraded and whittled away, it is now little more than inflation and unemployment, I can get that data free online, don't need to pay over 250 a year for that. I once asked them why the data has been reduced and guess what no satisfactory answer, just fobbed off. And if I want to read a Marxist rag, The Guardian is free, and also more UK oriented, the Economist has become very US oriented, but I live in the UK and it was once a British magazine. They also hide any email addresses so you have to use their terrible online chat bot system. I just emailed their letters page on the offchance they may get back, but there's more chance of Trump resigning and offering Biden the Presidency again than that I reckon. So now I shall just let the sub expire, thankfully I did not go for autorenew, unless on the slim chance they do get back, and I will use sites like the OECD databases, and go on sites like The Guardian for my Soviet Kremlin briefing, at least that's free for the privelige.

You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave

I was so excited to have the opportunity to use this tool to prep for my GMAT, but I quickly ran into issues especially around policy and customer service (whether through Economist's team or Mindojo team behind the application).

I signed up eager to get started learning, paid the hefty $700 at the time during a sale