I'm not suggesting that the NYT corporation didn't have their bases covered legally, I'm sure it said somewhere that my subscription would autorenew, but I assure you it wasn't plain or obvious. In fact that is not what I'm used to from periodicals, which is part of why I was surprised. I have subscribed to magazines many times in my life, and I'm used to getting many "your subscription is about to run out" "only 2 issues left!" "last issue! Resubscribe today!" notifications with the magazines. Presumably this is what the times does as well if you subscribe in cash or check.

What really bothered me was they took the payment method itself as an indication that I wanted a different type of subscription. Check? 1 year subscription. Cash? 1 year subscription. Credit card? oh ho! You obviously want to subscribe from now until the end of eternity! And yes, they told me on the phone that my use of a CC was indication that I wanted to autorenew and that there's not a way to pay with CC that doesn't autorenew (at the time I spoke with them in early 2018).

Basically to the NYT: "because of the payment method you used, we are able to keep billing you" = "you must want us to keep billing you!" and that is complete bullshit.