NYT Games, Wirecutter, and The Athletic Walk Into a Bar. Marketers Weren’t Aware They’re Related.

You know Wordle.
You've definitely heard of The Athletic and Wirecutter.
And you may even subscribe to Cooking.

But when Joy Robins surveyed advertisers and agencies about a year ago, many were unaware The New York Times owned all of them—or that advertising opportunities existed across these properties. The New York Times had assembled a portfolio reaching tens of millions daily across news, sports, shopping advice, cooking and gaming. The market still saw "news publisher" where a full-funnel portfolio had emerged.

Robins, Global Chief Advertising Officer at The New York Times since May 2023, spent two years building the infrastructure to monetize this valuable portfolio. Her strategy completely changed how media decision-makers evaluate publishers: 

Stop thinking single-brand strength. Start evaluating portfolio breadth. 

Publishers with diverse content brands reaching the same audiences in different decision contexts can serve awareness through purchase intent within one partnership. She shares with us the four tests NYT used to deliver genuine full-funnel capabilities versus repackaged single-brand limitations.

Key Takeaways:

• Four tests separate portfolio publishers with genuine full-funnel capabilities from those repackaging single-brand limitations at scale
• NYT proves portfolio breadth eliminates the choice between publishers (brand) and platforms (performance) by reaching the same audiences across awareness, engagement, and purchase-intent moments
• Media decision-makers can use property differentiation, data integration, editorial integrity, and custom integration tests to evaluate any portfolio publisher partnership

Don't Think 'Publishers for Brand, Platforms for Performance'

For the past decade, brands have been avoiding news publishers over concerns about their ads appearing next to negative stories. The pattern became predictable: brands used publishers exclusively for brand awareness, then switched to platforms for consideration, purchase intent, performance.

Research challenges this assumption. Studies show advertising in news environments doesn't hurt brand perception—in some cases, it actually improves how consumers feel about brands. 

But the overcorrection continued. 

Brands planning sports campaigns didn't think about The Athletic. Brands targeting shoppers overlooked Wirecutter, which drives $1B annual commerce. Brands seeking gaming audiences ignored the tens of millions playing NYT Games daily.

When Robins' team surveyed ad agencies and advertisers, the awareness gap was staggering. Many had no idea NYT owned Wordle, The Athletic, or that advertising opportunities existed across all of these properties. Brands accepting the publisher-for-awareness-only model miss high-intent audiences with unmatched engagement levels.

In 2025, users solved more than 11.2 billion puzzles on New York Times Games alone:

• 11.2 billion total puzzle solves across all game properties
• 4.2 billion Wordle puzzles solved throughout the year
• 1.6 billion Connections solves proving sustained daily engagement
• 1.5 billion Strands solves, showing adoption of newer game formats
• 1.4 billion Mini Crossword solves maintaining classic puzzle appeal
• Wordle scores shared 46 times per second creating organic social amplification
• 3 million shares in a single day from one April puzzle alone

These numbers highlight mass audiences choosing active engagement over passive consumption. Decision-ready audiences exist across gaming, sports, and shopping content, but only for brands willing to think beyond news-only partnerships.

How to Spot a Real Portfolio Publisher

Media decision-makers face a persistent dilemma: publishers deliver brand awareness and trust but lack purchase-intent audiences, while platforms offer full-funnel reach but sacrifice brand safety. NYT portfolio reveals how publishers with diverse content brands eliminate this choice—serving awareness through purchase intent within a single partnership.

Portfolio publishers aren't created equal. Robins breaks down the four tests that separate publishers with genuine full-funnel capabilities from those repackaging single-brand limitations at scale:

Test 1: Where's the Proof of Differentiation?

Can each portfolio brand deliver distinct ad experiences, or one-size-fits-all repackaged?

Effective portfolio publishers build distinct advertising infrastructure for each property. NYT created separate ad products for each brand based on how audiences actually engage with that specific content. Each portfolio brand required distinct advertising infrastructure based on audience behavior:

• Games: Six-to-fifteen-second autoplay video before gameplay—audiences expect pre-game ads and the singular positioning means no competing creative
• Wirecutter: Shopping-focused units mimicking Instagram's swipe-through browsing since audiences arrive in active purchase mode
• News properties:High-impact  brand awareness during professional content consumption
• The Athletic: Reaches sports enthusiasts during moments of high emotional investment

"What I saw the opportunity for when I arrived here in 2023 is how to connect advertisers to these really engaged audiences all across the portfolio," Robins said. "That included creating distinct ad opportunities within each of these portfolios, but also how to leverage the data across all these portfolios in a holistic way."

NYT doubled down on differentiation in October 2025 with the launch of “Watch Tab,” a standalone, swipeable video stack spanning news, opinion, cooking, Wirecutter, and The Athletic. The feature represents editorial breadth through vertical video, reaching audiences across all content contexts within a single, native experience. 

Portfolio publishers build distinct advertising infrastructure for each property based on how audiences actually engage with that specific content, then integrate those experiences through sophisticated data connections.

Test 2: Integration or Just Aggregation?

Can they target specific audiences across the portfolio without third-party cookies?

Real portfolio advantage requires sophisticated data infrastructure enabling frequency management and audience targeting across all properties. NYT can target audiences across news, sports, cooking, shopping, and games based on reading habits, favorite sports teams, family status, and purchase intent—without third-party cookies.

"We have a lot of first-party signal," Robins said. "In fact, we really don't do anything with third-party cookies. We are able to do things that a lot of publishers can't, like enter into data clean rooms that’s usually reserved for platforms."

Brands testing multi-property campaigns discovered measurable advantages. "They'll buy The Athletic, and they'll buy Style in the main news report," Robins explained. "And they're seeing that performance improves when they add more of the brands into their plan."

Reaching the same high-value audience in multiple contexts drives better outcomes than single-brand exposure.

Test 3: Audience First or Revenue First?

Does each property maintain authentic audience trust, or does monetization compromise editorial standards?

Trust transfers across portfolio brands only when editorial integrity remains consistent. The NYT operates as a subscription-first business, meaning advertising decisions serve audience experience first. The company maintains stringent guardrails including "disaster tagging" preventing brand adjacency to war, conflict, or non-brand-suitable content.

"We're a subscription-first business," Robins said. 

"Everything happens in service first of the consumer. Because we are maniacally focused on the user experience and how to engage more users more deeply to ultimately become subscribers, that engagement, that quality then has an impact on advertising."

Kantar surveyed 21,000 consumers on which platforms most influence purchase decisions. NYT ranked first—above Netflix, Apple TV, and X. Trust built through journalism extends to advertising effectiveness. Audiences making purchase decisions on Wirecutter or planning meals on Cooking assign the same credibility to advertising they assign to NYT’s journalism.

Test 4: Can They Build Something Unique?

Can they create never-been-done-before experiences, or only standard placements?

Portfolio publishers offering creative flexibility beyond standard placements demonstrate partnership mindset over transactional inventory sales.

Giant Spoon and NYT collaborated on a GE newspaper takeover with a campaign that completely reimagined the physical newspaper experience.

GE branded the entire front page, sports section, and select interior pages, creating an immersive brand environment that readers encountered throughout their news consumption. The campaign demonstrated how portfolio publishers can create custom integration opportunities that platforms simply cannot replicate, turning trusted editorial real estate into branded territory while maintaining reader trust.

"It was something that had such an incredible impact on consumers. It was the first of its kind." Robins said.

When agency partners and NYT teams used mutual understanding of audience behavior and portfolio breadth, they created never-been-done-before opportunities with measurable consumer impact.

Why This Gets More Valuable, Not Less

News avoidance was supposed to limit publisher advertising.

Instead, portfolio building turned limitation into opportunity. Brands avoiding hard news discovered they could reach the same premium audiences through sports, cooking, shopping, and games—then test back into news sections with improved performance.

Your next portfolio publisher evaluation determines whether you're buying broader reach or genuinely different capabilities. The four tests separate publishers that serve the entire funnel from those repackaging single-brand limitations at scale.