The New York Times sent out an email this week to what it thought was a few hundred customers who'd recently cancelled their subscriptions. It tried to get them to change their minds by offering 16 weeks at half-price.
But instead of going to a few hundred, it sent to the paper's entire database of 8.6m people who've handed over their email address.
Initially, the NYT tweeted that the offer email didn't come from them and should be ignored.
But it didn't take customers long to realise that the email did come from the paper, and they started demanding their discount subscription.
The NYT started honouring the discount to people who demanded it, but quickly stopped doing this while it rethinks its position.
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