Is Wirecutter Moving Beyond Affiliate Revenue, and What Do Sponsored Franchises Mean for Anyone Seeking a Product Recommendation?

What Did Wirecutter Say It Is Changing?

Digiday’s Sara Guaglione reports that Wirecutter is producing more around its core recommendations rather than replacing them: franchises such as the Hall of Fame Awards and Best New Picks, two shows launched this year (Wirecutter Taste Test and Wirecutter Recommends), podcasts and YouTube videos (Digiday). “Wirecutter has been on a pretty intense path of diversification. We have been focusing on diversifying our journalism, our audience model and our revenue model,” deputy publisher Cliff Levy told Digiday. Levy said the Hall of Fame launch was one of the most successful stories in Wirecutter’s history.

The chart shows the audience figures Wirecutter chose to share; both are minimums over unlike periods, so they show that the franchises draw a large audience, not which one draws more.

Betras and Levy “pushed back on any characterization of the editorial franchises as repackaging previous reviews,” Digiday says. Betras described the franchises as a way to “eventize” top recommendations “for our audiences to find outside of that moment of transaction,” and wrap advertising around them.

Why Is Affiliate Revenue Under Pressure?

Search. “So much of Wirecutter’s journalism and audience and revenue models were really structured around organic search. That has obviously changed for us in recent years,” Levy said (Digiday). Digiday notes that Business Insider scaled back its commerce business (it later corrected an earlier version that said the business was shut), that Google’s algorithm change at the end of 2024 hit product review sites, and that USA Today Co.’s Reviewed and AP’s Buyline shut down. It cites a Semrush report finding a 71% increase in AI Overviews on commercial-intent queries between November 2025 and April 2026, and a September 2026 Advanced Web Ranking study putting click-through on commercial-intent searches at 11.91% overall against 3.51% with AI Overviews. We did not open either study, so those are Digiday’s figures. For the wider evidence, see whether AI Overviews reduce clicks and what zero-click search is.

Betras said: “We were a predominantly affiliate business for much of Wirecutter’s history, and so we didn’t necessarily have that toolkit available to us. We had almost maxed out in some ways with partners, and so the ability to work with us from an advertising perspective, for example, was really net positive” (Digiday).

What Are Hybrid Deals, and How Big Are They?

Digiday describes them as campaigns that “span digital advertising, licensing, brand partnerships and affiliate.” A Times spokesperson put their growth at more than 300% year over year, and Betras noted that Wirecutter’s advertising business is only three years old, so it is growing from a smaller base. Danny Weisman, co-founder of media agency Obsessed Media, told Digiday that bundling can command higher prices and improve margins, particularly for publishers with strong brand recognition.

The Times Company does not break out Wirecutter’s revenue. Its quarterly filing says affiliate, licensing and other revenues “primarily consist of revenues from licensing, Wirecutter affiliate referrals” and other items, and reports that line at $75.5 million for the second quarter of 2026, up from $70.5 million a year earlier (NYT Co. 10-Q). That is the closest audited figure, and it mixes Wirecutter with licensing and other income.

Can a Brand Pay to Be Recommended by Wirecutter?

Not according to Wirecutter’s stated policy. Its About page says: “We won’t post a recommendation unless our writers and editors have deemed something the best through rigorous reporting and testing,” and that “the decisions we make regarding the products we feature on our site are always driven by editorial and product testing standards, not by deals or advertising relationships” (Wirecutter About, archived; live page). Digiday’s report describes sponsors of the Hall of Fame Awards and says the products recognized are ones Wirecutter has recommended for six or more years; it does not report that sponsors influence which products are chosen. We have no evidence either way beyond those two sources.

What a sponsor buys, then, is the franchise around the recommendations: the audience and the context. That is advertising, and it carries the usual disclosure duties. The FTC says an ad “shouldn’t suggest or imply to consumers that it’s anything other than an ad” (FTC), and its Endorsement Guides say a material connection that “might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement” must be “disclosed clearly and conspicuously” (16 CFR 255.5). See how paid content must be labelled and what the FTC requires for paid placement. This is not legal advice.

What This Means for Brands and Anyone Seeking a Product Recommendation

These are our recommendations, not Digiday’s findings. First, keep earned review coverage and sponsorship apart in planning and reporting: a franchise sponsorship is a media buy, and a pick in a review is editorial; see earned media vs paid media and what counts as earned media. Second, expect review outlets to offer sponsorships as affiliate revenue tightens, and ask any outlet in writing what a sponsorship does and does not affect. Third, never describe a sponsored placement as a recommendation in your own marketing. Fourth, measure what a review changes beyond clicks, since search clicks are under pressure; see how to measure whether a placement worked. The same pressure on publisher traffic shows up in September’s top-50 US news site figures. No recommendation, paid or earned, can guarantee sales or visibility.

Methodology and Limitations

Four limits apply. First, the franchise, growth and GMV figures come from one Digiday report and from Wirecutter and Times spokespeople; we found no second report of them and they are not audited. Second, the Times Company’s filing confirms Wirecutter affiliate referrals as a revenue source but does not report Wirecutter separately. Third, nytimes.com would not serve Wirecutter’s About page to our requests, so we read an archived copy dated September 17, 2026. Fourth, we did not open the Semrush or Advanced Web Ranking studies Digiday cites.

Conclusion

Wirecutter’s own account is that review economics built on search are changing, and that sponsorship around recommendations is part of the answer. For a brand, that changes what is for sale: the recommendation, by Wirecutter’s stated policy, stays editorial, while the franchise around it is something a sponsor can buy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

This guide is built from Digiday's October 15 report, Wirecutter's About page (archived copy), The New York Times Company's second-quarter 2026 10-Q and the FTC's guidance, all read on October 18, 2026. Advice to brands is our recommendation. We did not read the studies Digiday cites.

1. trade press Digiday (Sara Guaglione), Inside Wirecutter's push to diversify beyond affiliate revenue as AI reshapes discovery, October 15, 2026, updated October 16. Supports the franchise, hybrid-deal, GMV and staffing figures, quotes and cited studies. Read October 18, 2026.
2. publisher policy Wirecutter, About Wirecutter (archived September 17, 2026; live page). Supports how Wirecutter says it makes money and its independence statement. Read October 18, 2026.
3. company filing The New York Times Company, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, SEC EDGAR. Supports the affiliate, licensing and other revenue figures and their description. Read October 18, 2026.
4. regulator Federal Trade Commission, Native Advertising: A Guide for Businesses. Supports the quoted ad-identification guidance. Read October 18, 2026.
5. official Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 16 CFR 255.5, Disclosure of material connections. Supports the quoted disclosure rule. Read October 18, 2026.