General advice when subscribing to NYT is to do it through PayPal. Once you cut them loose from their funding from PayPal, they let you go without hesitation.
This. I've been using privacy.com for all my online subscriptions. I just cancel the card I used to sign up and call it a day.
I have not had good experiences with cancelling subscriptions through PayPal. My one attempt at reversing a transaction there went nowhere, and eventually I had to contact my bank to do so.
I have all my subscriptions go through PayPal. Makes everything easy to cancel.