NYT to debut weekly Wirecutter podcast
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
(Left to right) "The Wirecutter Show" co-host Caira Blackwell, producer Rosie Guerin and co-host Christine Cyr Clisset recording an episode of the new show at The New York Times headquarters in NYC. Photo credit: The New York Times
The New York Times will debut the first podcast for Wirecutter, its product reviews brand, on Aug. 21, executives told Axios.
Why it matters: The show is part of a broader effort to make Wirecutter's journalism more accessible and its business more resilient to changes in the media landscape.
- "Wirecutter is not only branching out in terms of its business model, it's also branching out in terms of its platforms," Cliff Levy, deputy publisher of Wirecutter, told Axios.
Zoom in: "The Wirecutter Show" debuts next Wednesday on The Times' audio app, NYT Audio, and for free on any platform where consumers get their podcasts. Polestar, the electric car company, is the show's launch sponsor.
- The show aims to demystify consumer recommendations around complicated topics through storytelling and explainers that are rooted in Wirecutter's journalism-driven product reviews.
- Co-hosts Caira Blackwell and Christine Cyr Clisset, alongside producer Rosie Guerin and Wirecutter journalists, will provide guidance, like hacks and in-depth examples of products that make sense for certain situations.
- For example, the first episode will discuss secrets to better laundry with Wirecutter appliances reporter Andrea Barnes. The second will focus on keeping indoor air clean with Tim Heffernan, a Wirecutter writer who covers air purifiers.
Zoom out: Levy, who also serves as deputy publisher of The Times' sports site, The Athletic, said Wirecutter's audio efforts have been inspired by The Times' success in audio broadly.
- The NYT Audio app, which was released in May of 2023, reached over 1 million downloads last year. The company's podcasts were downloaded nearly 1 billion times in 2023.
Catch up quick: The Times bought Wirecutter in 2016 for over $30 million.
- While most of the site's revenue comes from affiliate marketing — or cuts from product traffic referrals from retailers like Amazon or Walmart — The Times has pushed to expand Wirecutter's business.
- It introduced a paid subscription to the site in 2021. (Levy did not comment on Wirecutter's paid subscription figures. The Times does not provide figures for Wirecutter subscriptions publicly.)
- Wirecutter's email newsletter subscriber list has grown from 400,000 a year or so ago to 2.5 million today, Levy said.
Zoom out: Wirecutter's audience to date has been transactional, but The Times hopes the new podcast can help readers develop a more intimate relationship with the brand.
- "This podcast is taking a different lens to the Wirecutter sensibility," Levy said. "It's not about telling you what to buy. ... It's about being helpful."
- Guerin said the podcast is part of an effort to give voice to Wirecutter's journalists and "to hear how they got to these solutions," that fuel their product recommendations.
- Wirecutter has 140 journalists on staff.
The big picture: Wirecutter's affiliate business has helped The Times diversify its revenue model, which is mostly dependent on subscriptions and advertising.
- Wirecutter drove $1 billion in commerce through its product reviews last year, around triple the amount from 2019, Levy noted.
What to watch: The rise of generative artificial intelligence is expected to dramatically impact the way consumers get information from search results.
- "We don't know where Google Search is going, but we need to be ready," Levy said. "We need to be nimble. And the more that we can take Wirecutter's core journalism and put it on new platforms and in new story forms to reach new audiences, the more we can set ourselves up to be less vulnerable to the risk of disruption on search."
