I remember a reprint of a MAD Magazine issue from the 1960s or 1970s that was making fun of magazines' extravagant promotions to boost their circulation. The cartoon showed a magazine publisher personally visiting a non-renewing subscriber and offering him a serious of inducements to renew, culminating in the offer of the publisher's daughter's hand in marriage if the subscriber would agree to continue his subscription for another year.

In the punchline, the publisher said something to the effect of "and that's how we keep our subscription figures climbing!".

Ad revenue. You are the product not the customer, same in print as online ;)

The auto-renewal. Most people will forget about the renewal, then renew after a year at full rates.

Isn't the easy solution to this to immediately cancel auto renewal right after subscribing?