The Times’s paywall, after all, is metered, and my guess is that most casual Wirecutter readers don’t visit more than once a month - its main utility, remember, only kicks in when you’re looking to make a large purchase. It could even optimize the meter so it doesn’t count toward users visiting via Google searches, thereby ensuring that the site remains free for the vast majority who use it. New york times wirecutter productreview paywall free# Second, I think this strategy is possibly aimed at reducing Wirecutter’s reliance on Amazon. Earlier this year, Amazon announced that it had reduced affiliate fees it paid out to publishers, and while The New York Times received a carved-out exception to the cut, its executives are aware of how much power Amazon wields in online retail, especially as more and more consumers are starting their product searches directly on Amazon’s site, bypassing the rest of the web completely. Wirecutter is especially vulnerable to Amazon’s whims because of how it approaches affiliate links. While some publishers could simply swap out links to a different retailer with higher affiliate commissions, Wirecutter’s revenue team told me back in 2018 that they choose retailer links based on convenience to the reader, regardless of whether that retailer even offers up affiliate revenue.
Because Amazon often features the lowest price and the best deliverability options, Wirecutter is ethics bound to showcase it regardless of the affiliate payout. My bet also is that Wirecutter misses out on a significant amount of affiliate revenue simply because there’s often a months-long gap between when someone first researches a product on Wirecutter and when they actually buy it in those cases, Wirecutter doesn’t receive any credit for the purchase it helped drive.
My guess, based on reading interviews with various Wirecutter staffers over the years, is that the site has a base of extremely loyal readers, and its analytics team has spotted an opportunity to sell subscriptions to those readers without cutting into affiliate sales. New york times wirecutter productreview paywall free#.
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