https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35546133 - People are sick and tired of all their subscriptions (2023-04-12, 53 comments)
The irony that a WSJ subscription is needed to read the article was not lost back then either. I especially like how one reader commented
I called a couple of weeks ago to cancel the WSJ subscription. The woman wheedled and dickered with me until I relented and kept it.
This is the case even for free subscriptions. A couple years ago I went through my emails and every time I came across something from a list I hadn't bothered to read in some time, I unsubscribed, then searched/deleted what was cluttering my mailbox.
It actually took me a week to complete. Now I have it to the very few subscriptions I like enough to read often, and aren't just sending me what I have already read online days prior.
Subscriptions force you to act in some manner - even if it is just to click and delete.
We used to say "That could have been an email" but we've reached "That could have been a social media post that I can scroll past if I don't want to read it."