I have subscriptions to a few news websites and I’ve noticed this new tactic that really annoys me. They keep trying to upsell me to a higher level of subscription. Click here to subscribe to our premium subscription. Click here for the family plan and add 3 more members to your subscription. I wouldn’t mind it if it was an email once a month, but I feel like every time I visit these websites they’re throwing this in my face. It’s like they are pissed I’m only paying them $n, wouldn’t you rather pay us $n * 2?
I will just cancel those subscriptions all together. You try to upsell me you lose me. Be happy with what you are getting. If I’m already a subscriber I’m aware of upgraded subscription and there is a reason I have not upgraded to the upper tier.
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To me, it’s just more advertising. I don’t like to pay for a website and then be subjected to advertising of any type.
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Every ad or sales appeal is after one thing and one thing only, your money. I have gotten very stingy about subscribing or purchasing what I really don’t need. I will occasionally “treat” myself but I’m weary of the constant efforts to pick my pocket. 
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I mean, Apple does this. “Upgrade AppleCare coverage.” By which they mean, “switch to AppleCare One”. There’s no actual UPGRADE of your coverage, just a different way to collect your money.
One could even argue that with their aggressive removal of devices from the plan makes it a downgrade. Reference ATP with Siracusa talking about how he’d get emails telling him he had 24 hours to log in to a given device or lose coverage. And of course the emails were about devices that were either currently logged in, or just logged in to a different user account.
Although Dropbox is my worst offender in this category. I pay the regular monthly fee for the 2 TB or whatever it is, but whenever I go to the website they want to sell me more storage despite the fact that I’m nowhere close to using the 2 TB.
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Journalism subscriptions are increasingly up-or-out; people who stick with the base plans are likely to stop paying anyway as the bottom falls out of the industry. Might as well ask. Family subscriptions are especially worth selling since they socialize the publication (and its daily games) to new generations.
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I ignore these messages and most other annoyances on web pages if possible. Or I turn on Reader Mode to try get rid of them. But most of the time I just click the “Save to Goodlinks” button. Or search for the story on another site if GoodLinks can’t grab the page.
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