Millions of people who had given their email addresses to The New York Times were incorrectly told Wednesday morning that they had canceled their subscriptions. The accidental email to 8 million readers caused confusion, leaving subscribers scrambling to see what was wrong with their accounts while befuddling those who didn’t subscribe. After initially declaring the email was a spam attack, the paper copped to the fact that an employee sent the email and apologized for the accident in a second mass email.

The paper reported no information was compromised.

The apology message read:

Dear New York Times Reader,

You may have received an e-mail today from The New York Times with the subject line “Important information regarding your subscription.”

This e-mail was sent by us in error. Please disregard the message. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Sincerely,

The New York Times

Compounding an error with a falsehood is never a wise move, but at least the Times jumped on the problem and set the record straight before the embarrassment grew larger.

The Times E-Mails Millions by Mistake to Say Subscriptions Were Canceled [The New York Times]

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