How the New York Times built a nine-figure affiliate business

Executive overview

Print media revenue has collapsed, but the New York Times has grown since 2016. Digital subscriptions account for most of that growth, but a lesser-noticed revenue stream — affiliate marketing via Wirecutter — has nearly tripled and now represents roughly 10% of total revenue.

The NYT acquired Wirecutter in October 2016 for $30 million, scaled its content aggressively, migrated it onto the NYTimes.com domain, and used SEO and affiliate links to turn product reviews into passive income at scale.

A trusted brand with editorial scale and domain authority is the unfair advantage in affiliate marketing.

Why affiliate marketing suited the Times

• Low capital cost to start and operate — solo bloggers run eight-figure affiliate sites
• NYTimes.com sits just outside the top 100 most powerful domains globally
• 100 million social followers provide audience reach without paid acquisition
• Brand trust drives higher click-through and conversion rates on affiliate links
• Existing editorial team could produce high-quality product reviews at scale

How Wirecutter's affiliate model works

• Reviews rank on Google for high-intent queries like "best air fryer"
• Readers click affiliate links embedded in articles, which track referrals to retailers
• Amazon pays a commission on resulting purchases — e.g. 4.5% on kitchen products
• Revenue scales with traffic volume, not headcount

Wirecutter's growth after acquisition

• Pre-acquisition: ~1 million monthly organic visits on Wirecutter.com
• Within one year: content more than doubled, organic traffic tripled
• May 2020: migrated all content from Wirecutter.com to NYTimes.com domain
• Traffic dropped to zero during migration, then fully recovered
• By November 2020: 8 million monthly organic visits on the NYT domain
• Today: ~15 million monthly organic visits — 15x the pre-acquisition level

Revenue impact

• "Other revenues" (primarily licensing and Wirecutter affiliate referrals) have nearly tripled since 2016
• This segment now makes up roughly 10% of total NYT revenue — a nine-figure business
• Exact Wirecutter revenue is unknown: some visitors convert to NYT digital subscriptions, and some subscribers sign up partly for Wirecutter access
• The $30 million acquisition price looks highly favourable against current returns