Things are pretty bad in your renewal rates when you stoop to this:

I received a call yesterday from my newspaper (the San Diego Union Tribune). The nice young man on the phone told me that I had an unpaid bill, and if I liked, he could take care of that over the phone with me right then. I take a certain amount of pride in paying all my bills promptly, so my first impulse was to go ahead and get it taken care of asap. But after the first few seconds of surprise and confusion, I got suspicious.

Turns out it was a renewal call "with a twist". I bet some marketing flack thought it was a good idea, too.

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