I did not re-up my subscription to
Cook's Illustrated. This was an unhappy decision for me to make as I think the content is quite good.
During this past year I have been spammed repeatedly by
CI asking me to buy their cookbooks. Spam is easy to ignore, so this alone would not have swayed me, but, still, an annoyance, something the other numerous cooking/food magazines I subscribe to DON'T do.
The final straw, though, was their repeated telemarketing attempts! It is difficult for me to understand why organizations,
Cook's Illustrated being only part of the larger whole, do not take me at my word that I will discontinue my support for them if they do not stop calling me.
It's a big disincentive for me to support many a philanthropic organization. Since I am on the various "no-call" lists, they, intially, cannot call me at home. However, once you become a customer, donate, whatever, they are free to nag you at their will at home. WBEZ, WTTW and others have lost my support as a result. Simply put: do not call me at home unless you know me. I don't give three strikes - only two. After the first call, the representative is warned, then the second call results in my discontinuing of whatever support I provide whether it be a subscription or donation.
I realize I might be overly sensitive to this AND that it must work as a number of organizations pursue it. I guess my point is that I wish it wasn't so, and, it's my money in the end.
That being said, none of the Conde Nast publications do this,
Gourmet,
Bon Appetit and others.
Saveur has never felt the need to call me at home, nor
Cooking Light. If these magazines can survive without these supremely annoying marketing ploys, why can't
Cook's Illustrated, whose editorial content I will sorely miss (and I mean that quite sincerely), flourish without calling their loyal customers at home to sell a cookbook that's already advertised within the pages of the magazine? I simply will not accept being called at home to be hyper-aggressively marketed whatever they're shilling.
If you've made it this far, thanks for listening to my rant and my run-on sentences. Ahem.
Down with telemarketing!