"expanding the services we offer"

[ladelfina]

Dear Cities Guide subscriber,

This year we are redesigning Cities Guide, expanding the services we offer.

Our newsletter e-mails will change slightly. From next week, you will need to click on links in the e-mails to read our news stories and cultural reviews.

All Cities Guide content will remain free.

During the redesign (and perhaps beyond it), we are also suspending publication of a handful of our city newsletters: Atlanta, Johannesburg, Mexico City, Milan, São Paulo, Tel Aviv and Zurich. We will, of course, continue to publish travel guides for these cities.

I invite you to keep an eye on Cities Guide in the coming months, as we make exciting changes.

Yours faithfully,

Sarah Dallas
Editor, Cities Guide
Economist.com/cities

This never fails to crack me up! I can't ever remember reading a letter telling me about "exciting changes" that didn't charge me some fee or reduce some functionality.

Do they really think that people woudl regard the above as "expanded" service? Is there some focus group somewhere that proves this outright lying actually works?

 

[W2R]

That's for sure. Plus, I really hate to click on links in e-mail, because I have read so many warnings against doing that. They are probably safe, but I would still have some serious reservations about just blithely clicking on links.

It's amazing that they apparently don't realize that people exist who are not thrilled with these "expanded services". Sounds like somebody sold them a bill of goods, so to speak.

 

[bssc]

I get the feeling that expanded services = more advertising.

 

[ladelfina]

I get the feeling that expanded services = more advertising.

Oh, I'm quite aware of that..! just think that their intro line would make an awful lot more sense in an e-mail to their advertisers rather than to me..

 

[bssc]

Oh, I'm quite aware of that..! just think that their intro line would make an awful lot more sense in an e-mail to their advertisers rather than to me..

Its to get you pumped up that they are going to be offering more information (in the form of advertising).