The New York Times’s subscription-first strategy creates video environments platforms can't replicate, says Global Chief Advertising Officer Joy Robins
Video plans budgets tend to follow the path of least resistance. YouTube, Meta, and a handful of dominant platforms absorb the lion's share of spending—partly because their scale is real and because the buying process is efficient. A media planner's job is to find value and effectiveness in the marketplace, and that sometimes means looking beyond the default buy.
But when researchers surveyed 21,000 consumers about where ads actually work, The New York Times ranked #1 for receptivity—ahead of every platform getting those budgets. But when the researchers asked media buyers to rank those same properties. The Times didn't make the top five.
Joy Robins, Global Chief Advertising Officer at The New York Times, knows why that gap exists.
When publishers build video destinations for subscribers first and advertisers second, they create environments with a different quality of attention. Social and connected TV spending hit roughly $164 billion in 2025, and the dominance of a select group of platforms reflects how efficiently media buyers can transact at scale. Greater impact sometimes sits elsewhere, and that's where editorial quality and trust transfer become the differentiator.
Meanwhile, consumers trust publishers more for the decisions that actually matter: what to buy.
Key Takeaways
- Kantar ranked The New York Times #1 for ad receptivity, but marketers don't include it in top video plans
- $72B in video spend flows to platforms by default while publishers deliver trust and performance that traditional social platforms can't match
- Subscription-first publishers deliver 80-90% viewability and real lifts in awareness, consideration, and purchase intent
What subscription-first actually means
Robins runs advertising globally for The Times. She joined in 2023 and has watched video views across the portfolio nearly double year-over-year. But The New York Times makes most of its revenue from subscriptions, not ads. That means every product decision starts with one question:
Will subscribers pay for this?
When user experience drives development instead of ad revenue, engagement quality follows—and that quality creates better advertising environments.
The Watch Tab is the shining example. It launched in October 2025 as a curated video feed inside The Times app. Human editors surface content across news, sports, culture, and cooking—no algorithms deciding what shows up. Three weeks after launch, 40% of visitors watched for more than 60 seconds.
What smart media buyers find interesting in this is The Times studied how people used Watch Tab before introducing any advertising. They looked at how people watched, what kept them engaged, then built ad formats that matched actual behavior.
That's backwards from platforms, where ad products drive what gets built.
Editors vs. algorithms
When editors curate video instead of algorithms, brand safety becomes built-in, not bolted on.
Platform feeds optimize for clicks and watch time. That means ads can run next to content that tanks brand perception, even with keyword blocklists and safety tools. Publishers using editorial curation maintain content quality as the baseline. Ads appear next to journalism that passed editorial standards, not viral content that gamed an algorithm.
What the Watch Tab beta proves: The Times opened Watch Tab to advertisers in January 2026 after studying how subscribers engaged with the feed. Early demand came from travel, CPG, luxury, telecom, healthcare, finance, food and beverage, and tech categories—brands with strong vertical video assets looking for trustworthy environments.
The performance data shows why they wanted in. Watch Tab delivers engagement matching other vertical-swipe video feeds on social platforms. Ads capture attention as users swipe through the feed, driving views of the first few seconds at rates that can exceed social platforms when brands extend their short-form vertical assets.
More telling is the overall time spent in Watch Tab remained the same whether users saw ads or not. Advertising didn't reduce engagement because the experience felt native to the placement.
What the broader portfolio already proves: The trust transfer is fact, not theory. Across The New York Times' video ecosystem, editorial quality drives performance that platforms can't match. The New York Times Games interstitials—where tens of millions play daily—hit 80-90% viewability, the highest across the portfolio. Video FlexXL formats deliver completion rates over 75% with 12.81 seconds of active viewing time. When consumers trust the environment, they assign that trust to ads running in it.
What this means for your video budget
Social alone jumped from $75 billion to $83 billion year-over-year, grabbing more than 50% of tracked digital spend. Media buyers consolidated into platforms because the buying process is simpler and the scale is guaranteed.
But scale without trust wastes money.
If your brand needs to drive consideration and purchase intent—not just awareness—evaluate video partners on these factors:
- Business model determines quality
Publishers making most revenue from subscriptions can't compromise user experience for ad income. Platforms making all revenue from ads will always optimize for ad load over user experience. - First-party data from subscriptions (and registrations) beats third-party cookies
The Times can target audiences based on what they read, play, watch, and subscribe to. "We are able to do things that a lot of publishers can't, like enter into data clean rooms that are usually reserved for platforms," Robins notes. Cookie loss makes this advantage permanent. - Format innovation follows audience behavior
Watch Tab ads appear full screen and swipeable, matching how people consume vertical video. Campaigns launch in 48 hours with no edits or cropping. Vertical assets from social campaigns work directly without rebuilds.
The operational simplicity matters, but the trust environment matters more.
The real question for your video budget
Robins sees the video market clearly.
"It's ensuring that we are considered as a destination for messaging, both for brand as well as mid-funnel. Video is an excellent vehicle for brand advertising. And given the reach and frequency of our audiences, there's also a real opportunity to build mid-funnel consideration."
Premium publishers are competing with platforms on trust, editorial quality, and business outcomes. When you spend video budgets, ask whether the environment delivers real engagement or forced exposure.
The Kantar study shows the gap: consumers trust publishers most for purchase influence, but marketers send budgets to platforms.
Your mid-funnel video budget should follow the trust.