That's only been true for the past few months, and it's been very well documented how complicated the cancelation process used to be [0].

It's funny because I use PayPal for any unknown-to-me site where I don't want to give out my card, but the only site where I've needed their help to cancel something was the New York Times.

[0] https://www.nirandfar.com/cancel-new-york-times/

Why did it take you five minutes instead of twenty seconds? It should be as simple as clicking on the link to your profile then clicking unsubscribe, mere seconds not minutes.

Assuming you just said five minutes figuratively... Do you live in California or some other legal jurisdiction that forces them to play nice? Did you subscribe through some other company, like Apple?

Horror stories about unsubscribing from the NYTimes are easy to find in the archive if you search for it. They make you call and chat to a retention specialist on the phone. This should help you have an idea of what he's talking about: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

International one, as szraight forward as it could be: go to profile, go to manage subscription, cancel subscription, answer question why if you want, confirm cancellation, done for date depending on subscription.