the new york times 100m side business with timestamps YoutubeScribe.com

[0:00] Print media is dying, and the internet killed it.
[0:02] Daily newspaper circulation has dropped
by over 50% since 2020, and roughly two
[0:07] newspapers go out of business every week.
[0:10] Now, amidst all this chaos, the New York Times
hasn't just weathered the storm of declining
[0:15] newspaper sales, but their revenue has
actually been growing since 2016.
[0:20] And while many attribute this to "digital
transformation," beneath the surface lies
[0:24] a secret, a strategic move that most haven't noticed.
[0:28] And the answer probably isn't what you're thinking.
[0:31] Because it has nothing to do with journalism -
but it has everything to do with how we shop.
[0:36] But before we get there, we need to talk
about this so-called "digital transformation."
[0:41] In March 2011, the New York Times announced
that it would be launching digital subscriptions.
[0:46] This meant that you could read up to
20 articles on their site each month
[0:49] and have access to some of their apps.
[0:51] And adoption was actually quite good.
[0:54] Their digital subscription revenue has been
growing year over year for over a decade.
[0:58] And today, it brings in around a
billion dollars per year in revenue.
[1:02] Now, that digital subscription has evolved into
what the New York Times CEO, Meredeth Kopit
[1:07] Levien refers to as a "digital product experience".
[1:11] And this "experience" can be bought for
around $6 per week to gain access to news,
[1:16] games like Wordle, the Cooking App, and more.
[1:19] But this 'digital product experience'
narrative was far from the whole story.
[1:24] Under the hood, something else was brewing —
a pivotal change that kick-started near the end of 2016.
[1:30] You see, while the rest of the print world 
continued sinking, The New York Times'
[1:34] revenue grew a notable amount
for the first time in over a decade.
[1:38] And while much of this growth is because
of more digital subscriptions, the part that
[1:42] no one's really talking about is this "Other" revenue
source which has nearly tripled since 2016, making
[1:50] up roughly 10% of their total revenue today.
[1:53] So what's this mysterious 9-figure
side business all about?
[1:57] Well, according to the New York Times' 2022
annual report, they state that "Other revenues
[2:02] primarily consist of revenues from licensing,"
and right after that, "Wirecutter affiliate referrals,"
[2:08] which was not so coincidentally acquired in
October 2016, right before they began a new
[2:14] wave of growth.
[2:15] And in their Q2 earnings call from that same year,
they noted that "other revenues" came in higher
[2:20] than guidance, specifically calling out
"higher Wirecutter affiliate referrals."
[2:26] Now, affiliate referrals are commissions that
are generated through affiliate marketing.
[2:30] And this is when a company is compensated
a commission in exchange for referring leads
[2:34] or sales to an affiliate merchant.
[2:37] This is the primary monetization
method used by the Wirecutter.
[2:40] To better illustrate what this looks like in
action, say you want to buy an air fryer.
[2:45] You'll probably go to Google
and  search for "best air fryer."
[2:48] In fact, your search is just one of 123,000 that
happen in any given month in the US alone.
[2:54] Now, you click on the link to the New York
Times Wirecutter because it ranks high
[2:59] and you know the brand.
[3:00] Then you scroll through the article, click some
links to Amazon, and then make a purchase
[3:05] based on some Amazon reviews and your budget.
[3:07] Nothing out of the ordinary here.
[3:09] But what you might have missed while 
shopping is that the links you clicked
[3:12] have a tracking tag attached to them.
[3:14] This is called an affiliate link.
[3:17] And when someone clicks this affiliate
link, it tells Amazon that the Wirecutter
[3:20] referred those shoppers to them.
[3:22] And when those clickers make a purchase, Amazon
is going to give the New York Times a cut of that sale.
[3:28] How much of a cut?
[3:29] Well, according to Amazon Associate's 
commissions table, an air fryer falls into
[3:33] the "kitchen" category so it pays out 4.5%.
[3:37] So for a $100 air fryer, a standard
affiliate would get around $4.50.
[3:42] And while this may not sound like a hundred
million dollar business, the scale at which
[3:46] the New York Times is doing affiliate
marketing is absolutely bonkers.
[3:51] And I'll show you exactly how big
they've taken this site soon, but first,
[3:55] it's vital that you understand why affiliate
marketing was and still is the perfect add-on
[4:01] business for the New York Times.
[4:03] And there's two main reasons.
[4:04] First: It doesn't require a lot
of cash to start or operate.
[4:08] In fact, there are plenty of solo bloggers who are
running multi-six-, seven- and even eight-figure affiliate
[4:14] marketing sites – perfect for a company that
was probably being a bit more cash-conscious.
[4:20] And second and perhaps the most important
part: the New York Times is one of the most
[4:25] authoritative brands on the planet.
[4:27] They have around 100 million followers
across their social accounts.
[4:31] And from a search engine standpoint, their website
is just outside of the top 100 most powerful domains,
[4:38] making nytimes.com an optimal home
to attract substantial organic traffic.
[4:44] So basically, The New York Times has all three
ingredients to make an untouchable affiliate site:
[4:50] a content and editorial team that can produce
top-notch content, the domain and audience
[4:56] to quickly generate tons of traffic, and a brand
name that's well-known and trusted, which I'm
[5:02] sure contributes to higher conversion rates.
[5:04] And they knew all this and capitalized on it.
[5:07] Let's look at the journey of the Wirecutter.
[5:09] So, pre-acquisition, thewirecutter.com was
getting around 1 million monthly visits from
[5:13] Google search.
[5:14] Then in October 2016, the site was
acquired for a reported $30 million.
[5:19] Now, their first act of order was to do
what they do best: scale content like crazy.
[5:25] And within just one year from the acquisition
date, they more than doubled content and
[5:30] tripled organic traffic.
[5:32] And they continued to scale content and rank
it in Google on thewirecutter.com domain.
[5:37] Then in May 2020, the New York Times
would take a risk that not many marketing
[5:41] professionals would do with a site that's
getting five million monthly visits from Google
[5:46] and generating tens of millions of dollars.
[5:48] They migrated all of the content from
thewirecutter.com to the New York Times domain,
[5:54] dropping their traffic to zero.
[5:55] And if you've ever dealt with migrations, you know
that they almost always come with problems.
[6:02] But something absolutely crazy happened
once the migration was done.
[6:06] They restored all of their traffic on the New York
Times domain and by November that same year,
[6:11] they had hit over eight million
monthly organic visits from Google.
[6:15] And using their brand and authority, they've
tripled search traffic to nearly 15 million
[6:20] monthly visits from Google search alone.
[6:22] So with 15X the organic traffic since the
acquisition and likely higher commission
[6:28] rates with affiliate merchants, I'd say that
their 30 million dollar bet paid off big time.
[6:34] And today, the New York Times' Wirecutter 
ranks for just about every "best product name"
[6:38] query in Google like "best air purifier," "best gifts for
dad," "best wireless outdoor home security cameras,"
[6:45] and thousands more.
[6:47] Now, unfortunately, we can't put an exact
dollar amount on the Wirecutter's revenue
[6:51] because, even if we knew the affiliate
numbers, that's not the whole picture.
[6:55] And the reason for that is because some
Wirecutter visitors almost certainly end up
[6:59] buying the New York times main
cash cow: the digital subscription.
[7:03] And other digital subscribers are
probably buying the subscription
[7:07] because it includes full, unrestricted
access to the Wirecutter's content.
[7:11] What we do know is that when the New
York Times took over the Wirecutter,
[7:14] an already successful business, they continued to
publish high-quality reviews at scale, leveraged SEO
[7:21] as their primary marketing tactic to get
free and consistent visitors to their site,
[7:26] and used the affiliate marketing model
to passively generate revenue, creating
[7:31] this amazing, yet valuable eight
to nine-figure side business.
[7:35] Now, if you want to get started with affiliate 
marketing, then you can take our completely
[7:39] free course right here on YouTube to start building
your revenue-generating affiliate site today.

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