Weak subconvexity without a Ramanujan hypothesis

We describe a new method to obtain weak subconvexity bounds for $L$-functions with mild hypotheses on the size of the Dirichlet coefficients. We verify these hypotheses for all automorphic $L$-functions and (with mild restrictions) the Rankin-Selberg $L$-functions attached to two automorphic representations. The proof relies on a new unconditional log-free zero density estimate for Rankin-Selberg $L$-functions.