More than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday, according to two people at the paper with knowledge of internal matters. Not all cancellations take effect immediately. Still, the figure represents about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well. The number of cancellations continued to grow Monday afternoon.

    • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works
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      I think Elon mismanaged Twitter tremendously but a very clear “this is my toy and I’ll break it if i want” message was sent and a very dangerous message it was. Gives me the same vibe. Bezos doesn’t need to own it but he does and he’ll do what he pleases.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      Yeah but what am I going to do for my next space flight? The options are down to Bezos, or Musk.

      Why can’t someone like Taylor Swift start a space exploration company?

  • Jure Repinc@lemmy.ml
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    It would hurt this sociopath Bezos a lot more if people also canceled Amazon services en mass

  • cabbage@piefed.social
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    To anyone unsubscribing: Remember to subscribe somewhere else instead. If not you’re just helping Bezos achieve his goal of the death of journalism.

    @ProPublica@newsie.social is one good alternative.

    As others have said, if you want to hurt Bezos, target Amazon.

  • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    WaPo - “Democracy dies in darkness”

    Bezos - “I can deliver darkness to everyone in America in 2 days or less”

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      “We endorse Democrats! REJOICE!!!”

      “We want to stay neutral! BURN THEM ALIVE!”

      Can’t make this shit up…

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        WaPo editors wanted to endorse Harris.

        Bezos, who is not an editor, forced them to remain neutral.

        That’s a problem. People don’t subscribe to WaPo because they want to read Bezos’s thoughts.

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          Editors wish to use their paper to endorse a candidate, the owner of the paper does not want them to do that so their endorsement is not written. What’s the issue here?

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    Something darkly funny to me is all the people who work there whose job it is to grow subscribers seeing their last three years of hard work flushed down the drain on the whims of the owner.

    I’d love to sit in on performance reviews for Q4’s end.

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      I’ve been there. It sucks sooooooooo much. Especially if you’ve made family sacrifices (missing events etc.) to travel to get those deals closed - just to see them just evaporate in a whim.

      That’s why I got out of Tech Sales and into management.

  • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    Finally got around to canceling my Prime membership. I’ve been relying on Amazon to get all the shit I can’t buy in person, but I’ll figure out some other way to get those.

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      You’re probably out of luck. I’ve been trying to avoid amazon for two years but all the other options suck. I’m constantly chasing missing orders and returning items because they’re just not as described.

      Amazon revolutionised the customer experience and apparently nobody else has even bothered to try and mirror their formula.

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        That’s simply not true anymore.

        We recently got straight-up scammed on Amazon by a third-party seller on Amazon, and they won’t do jack about it. They said it’s between us and the third party.

        I’m done with their bullshit. They’re nothing but an expensive front page for alibaba drop-shippers these days.

        • MrMcGasion@lemmy.world
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          If it was just AliBaba drop shippers it would probably be better, but rather than drop-shipping they’re basically a US based warehouse and distributor for drop-shippers to be able to sell their garbage with 2-day shipping.

      • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.de
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        4 days ago

        apparently nobody else has even bothered to try and mirror their formula.

        It isn’t that no one has tried, but Amazon has several anticompetitive policies in place that make it virtually impossible for anyone to compete with them.

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        I’ve ordered 3-4 things from Amazon in my entire life. It’s really not hard to ditch if you grew up in a time before Amazon. I’m 39, I can go to the store.

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        In the West. In China there are several amazing alternatives; they are like ten years ahead.

        Makes me so annoyed that we are stuck with this monopoly.

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        Everything they sell is on eBay from private sellers and importers.

        You could say the reviews are a plus but some products are all propelled by bot reviews and Amazon featuring items anyway, so what good is it, really?

        I’m back to square 1 with the internet of looking up item reviews on small forum posts and word of mouth since Amazon has abandoned the one thing it had useful to me, peer-review.

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        4 years in and the only problem I’ve had is when a retailer uses FBA and Amazon ends up delivering it. It is not that hard, use eBay (avoid Amazon dropshippers by not buying things with free expedited shipping and free returns). I have not struggled whatsoever it just takes more time and is often cheaper. Especially with fewer impulse purchases.

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        I am every day thankful of mercadolibre here where I live, it’s the absolute best, Amazon can’t even come close

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        Part of why they can absorb so many returns, unfortunately, is because of their sheer scale of business.

      • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
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        Yeah unfortunately I live in a major city and every other retailer has trash delivery that costs an arm and a leg. I tried buying a few items from a store in my province, and shipping the items was more than the cost of the items. Even hot topic, I ordered a couple of t-shirts and a jacket and they wanted $50 for shipping across the city to me

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        Give Walmart.com a shot, you’ll be shocked how much easier it is to use than Amazon actually.

        One evil billionaire for another, but the actual online experience is modern platform unlike Amazon which looks like it was made in 1998

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        Same here. I’ve conceited that I’m not gonna pay for prime and all other subscriptions but fuck me actually not using it in the UK is impossible, all the independent retailers are long gone and if they somehow exist they are just dog shit options through and through.

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    I stopped reading Washington post when they made everything paywall.

    Don’t regret it at all, plenty of other better articles online.

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    Holy shit, that number is huge, in terms of their paid subscribers.

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    I’m glad this happens in a world where newspapers endorse candidates, but I also don’t get why newspapers are allowed to endorse candidates in the first place. I guess that is the least of our concerns when you look at media bias, but still…

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      Think of it in terms of “out in the open”. Fwiw most (all) media orgs have a bias and as such are more likely to endorse a certain candidate. That could be President, it could be mayor. Would you rather have that endorsement in the open or hidden in context?

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        I’d rather have neutral, fact based reporting. That one party endorses “alternative facts” was a choice by that party. It doesn’t mean that people more grounded in reality are biased.

        In other words: if you are an US-American news source that reports neutrally, the vast majority of your staff will be voting Democrats.

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          You ain’t wrong. That’s what makes this world increasingly fucked up.

          What’s that saying? “The truth tends to have a natural bias to the left” or some shit like that.

    • Tinks@lemmy.world
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      Newspapers are allowed to endorse candidates because the first amendment protects free speech. While I may agree with you that endorsements and news media stumping for ANY candidate is problematic and reeks of propaganda, it is, for better or worse, protected by the constitution.

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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      Because I don’t follow the ins and outs of local news or local politics. If the journalists following the school board controversies on a daily basis have a better opinion on who should be on the school board or county judge role, I will trust them.

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      I mean when the choice is either facism or democracy, I’d assume being unbiased is a little hard. After all, the nazis did attack the press first to instill propaganda.